- Title
- Maharana Bhim Singh of Udaipur (r. 1778-1828) Watching a Celebration of the Teej Monsoon Festival
- Date Made
- circa 1800-1825
- Medium
- Opaque watercolor and gold on paper
- Dimensions
- Image: 18 x 10 1/2 in. (45.7 x 26.7 cm); Sheet: 18 x 11 1/2 in. (45.7 x 29.2 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.74.102.3
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
Maharana Bhim Singh of Udaipur (r. 1778-1828) was born in 1768, ascended the throne at age ten in 1778 under the regency of his mother Sadar Kanwar, and died in 1828. He was the 26th Maharana of Mewar (r. 1778-1818) and, after politically aligning Mewar with the English East India Company in 1818, the 1st Maharana of the Princely state of Udaipur (r. 1818-1828). Early in his reign Bhim Singh primarily commissioned portraits of himself hunting and in royal processions, but by circa 1800 his portraits were predominantly in palace settings attended by court women and servants.
In this painting, the nimbate Bhim Singh arrives on the left seated on a white horse to watch women perform the Teej festival below a stylized pipal tree. He is accompanied by a large retinue of attendants and nobles riding horses, a camel, and an elephant. Five groups of women, wearing mainly red or yellow garments according to custom, perform the ceremony by offering tall floral bouquets on stands to honor the marriage of Shiva and Parvati and to pray for their blessings. Ominous cumulus clouds and thunderstorms in the purple-grey sky announce the arrival of the monsoon season. See also M.81.280.6.
