Title: Maharaja Ranjit Singh
Classification: Oil painting
Artist(s): Unknown
Date: 19th century
Museum number: N.G.111
Physical location: Section 5: Rani Jindan's Haveli
Inscriptions: On metal plate: “MAHARAJA RANJIT SINGH, THE LION OF PUNJAB [next line] BORN: 14 NOV. 1780 – DIED: 28 JUNE 1839 [next line] PRESENTED BY [next line] SHIROMANI G.P. COMMITTEE, [next line] AMRITSAR."
Bibliographic Reference(s):
[1]Jyoti. M. Rai, “The Nanakshahi—The Divine Sikh Coinage,” in Paul Michael Taylor and Sonia Dhami, eds., Sikh Art from the Kapany Collection (California: Sikh Foundation, 2017), fig. 11.20.
This is one of the two oil paintings in Lahore Fort’s Sikh Gallery that replicates an engraving of a sketch made by an “Indian artist”. The metal engraving was done by Edward William Stodart (1841–1914) and first published by E. Nolan in The History of India and of The British Empire in the East (vol.1), in 1858. Countless copies of this image have been reproduced using different techniques and media including oil paints, watercolour and ivory paintings.[1]
The painting in the Lahore Fort’s Sikh Gallery has a simple wooden frame with a small metal plate carrying an English inscription. It states that this was a gift from the Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, Amritsar, but neither gives a date of this donation nor the name of the artist.
