Herbert Haseltine

Herbert Haseltine completed a degree at Harvard University in 1899, and afterwards studied drawing at the Munich Academy, Germany and painting at the Academie Julian in Paris, France. In 1905 he studied painting with Aimé Morot who inspired him to make sculpture, a discipline with which he enjoyed immediate success.  According to his diary Aimé Morot told Haseltine: "Some day you will go to India, where you will get your greatest inspiration".

Jam Shri Rawalji was Nawanagars's greatest ruler and hero, who in 1531 arrived in the state of Kutch with a vast army and conquered Kathiawar which became the state of Nawanagar (present day Jamnagar). In the early 20^th century the Maharaja Jamsaheb of Nawanagar asked Edwin Lutyens, the famous English architect and then President of the Royal Academy, London, to approach Herbert Haseltine about the possibility of making an equestrian statue of his ancestor to honor his memory.

The Maharaja requested that he use as a model for the horse the famous Kathiawar stallion, Ashwani Kumar, a direct descendant of Jam Shri Rawalji's famous charger, Uchaiswa.  As described in the Illustrated London News of October 22^nd 1927, Ashwani Kumar was an animal of remarkable intelligence and a winner of many races.

Haseltine was immensely excited about the prospect of creating the monument to Jam Shri Rawalji, writing in his diary that he could scarcely allow himself to think about it in case the assignment was not realized. His diary entries describe the trip to India, undertaken together with Luytens, to make initial drawings for the project. After working for some weeks he wrote; 'The Maharaja came to my improvised studio, approved and was pleased with the sketches and told me to go ahead with the orders.' Once given the commission he began a series of sculptural studies for the final work. 

After making studies for six years Haseltine, in a characteristic burst of energy, completed the final sculpture in just thirty days; carving it out of an immense block of plaster, having it bronze cast in Brussels and shipped to India in time for the unveiling to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the reign of Maharajah Jamsaheb in the early part of 1933. This small-scale model was kept by the artist as a precious memento of his Indian adventures.