2-738-928 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Raja Dalip Singh of Guler on a Dais, c. 1720. Dalip Singh sits on a carpeted marble platform probably meant for meditation or relaxation, intently reading a page from a manuscript. The vertical red mark on his forehead reveals that he is a devotee of the Hindu god Vishnu. The delicate shading of the facial tones and hair gives the portrait a sense of naturalism. The figure is framed by the wispy branches of a willow and thick foliage of trees. This pious king is equally comfortable in either an urbane court or in nature. This painting was purchased from the Heeramaneck Collection, which in the 1970s was acquired by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where Dr. Catherine Glynn Benkaim worked as a curator of Indian and Islamic art, and met her husband Ralph.