Henry Singleton (British, 1766-1839)

The Surrender of the two sons of Tipu Sultan to Major General David Baird

Footnotes

Provenance
Property from a descendant of Major General Sir David Baird (1757-1829).

The Anglo-Mysore Wars, Major General David Baird and Tipu Sultan's Sons

On the fourth of May 1799, following a month-long siege, the British, together with the army of their ally the Nizam of Hyderabad, stormed and captured Seringapatam, the capital of 'The Tiger of Mysore', Tipu Sultan. The death of Tipu during the fighting brought to a close the Fourth Mysore War, after which the state was partitioned. Following the death of their father, Tipu Sultan's sons surrendered to the British. They were received by Major General David Baird, who had commanded the final assault on Seringapatam, and it is this moment which is depicted in our painting.

In a letter from Baird to Lieutenant-General Harris recounting the events of the taking of Seringapatam, he describes the surrender:

'On reaching the palace, Major Allan came out to me, and informed me he had been with Tippoo's two youngest sons, who were ignorant where their father was, but were disposed to surrender themselves and the palace on a promise of protection...Early the next morning Abdul Khalick, the second son of Tippoo, and the elder of the two who were delivered to Lord Cornwallis as hostages, at the conclusion of the last war, was met by Lieutenant-Colonel Dalrymple coming from the island to deliver himself up; he was immediately assured of protection and the most liberal treatment, and I went to meet him, to shew him how much satisfied I was with the confidence he placed in us, by thus delivering himself into our hands when the means of escape were perfectly in his power' (in Theodore Edward Hook, The Life of General, the Right Honourable Sir David Baird, 1832, pp. 231-232).

The princes had previously been handed over to the British, to Lord Cornwallis, as part of the peace treaty following the Third Mysore War (1790-92). Following their surrender in 1799, they were subsequently sent to Vellore and then exiled to Calcutta along with the rest of Tipu's surviving family.

The Impact of the Anglo-Mysore Wars on British Painting

The events of the Mysore Wars became a popular subject in British painting at the time. Images of the departing children in 1792 were amongst the first scenes through which the legend of Seringapatam took visual form. These include a painting by Thomas Stothard entitled 'The hostage princes leaving the zenana', c. 1799 (illustrated in Mildred Archer, India and British Portraiture 1770-1825, London, 1979, p. 426, No. 337). This subject is also captured by Singleton in a painting of 1793, 'The sons of Tipu Sultan leaving their father' (illustrated in op. cit. p. 423, No. 336). Paintings of their handover to Cornwallis in 1792 were also popular, notable examples being a painting by Mather Brown, an engraving of which is lot 151 in the present sale, and also a version by Singleton (illustrated in op. cit. p. 422, No. 335).

However, following the capture of Seringapatam, artists competed to produce depictions of the battle; the final surrender of the two sons, the last effort and fall of Tipu, and the discovery of his body (Mildred Archer, India and British Portraiture 1770-1825, London, 1979, p. 426). Indeed, the present lot is one of a series of four paintings by Singleton portraying events during the siege, including 'The Assault and Taking of Seringapatam', now in the Allentown Art Museum, Pennsylvania (ID Number: 1975.050.000). 'The Last Effort and Fall of Tippoo Sultaun' by Singleton was sold at Sotheby's, Exotica Sale, 25 May 2005, lot 66. The final painting in the series was entitled 'The Body of Tippoo Sultan recognised by his Family'.

Henry Singleton

Henry Singleton was born in London and raised by his uncle William Singleton, a portrait painter and miniaturist who had studied under Ozias Humphry. An artistic family, Henry's sisters and a further uncle exhibited at the Royal Academy, and Henry himself would go on to exhibit almost 300 works there. In addition to historical paintings such as the present lot, Singleton was also a popular portraitist, and was commissioned in 1793 to paint a group portrait of forty of the Royal Academicians (The Royal Academy, London, Object No. 03/1310). Further works by Singleton are in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, London, Tate Britain and the Royal Collection Trust.

The Painting

In the present painting, Singleton depicts the sons of Tipu Sultan in the action of surrendering, being presented to Major General David Baird by Major Allen. They descend the steps towards Baird, the son to the right hand side extending his sword to the Major General. British and Indian officers alike look on, and in the background soldiers jostle on the walls of the battlements to view the scene below, the shadowy outline of the capital stretching out behind them. Just visible in the upper central portion of the painting are characteristic South Indian gopurams ('entrance towers'). It is possible that these may represent the Shri Ranganathaswamy temple in Seringapatam. A near contemporary drawing of a similar architectural structure is in the Royal Collection Trust (RCIN 930166). In the upper left hand corner of the painting rise two towers, possibly the towers of the Jumma Masjid (or Friday Mosque), a major landmark in Seringapatam that was built by Tipu in the 1780s. A photograph of the Jumma Masjid dating to 1860 is in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh (PGP R 868).

An oil sketch by Singleton in the Yale Center for British Art depicts another version of the same subject as the present lot (B1981.25.572). In this sketch, the perspective is shifted, as though the viewer is seeing the same scene from a position to the right of that in our painting. In a further work by Singleton, this time in grey wash on paper, just the central group of the two sons and their retinue, noted as Abdul Wahab (Principal Lord) and Said Ameen (Lord of the Treasury), is depicted, with the figures numbered and labelled (see Christie's, Travel, Science & Natural History, 10 October 2013, lot 154). It is possible that these works may have been studies for the present lot, in which Singleton is working out the ideal composition.

In the final painting, Singleton places Tipu's sons just off centre, their group singled out by their bright white attire, the princes wearing long white gowns and bedecked with pearls. This inclusion not only serves as a clever pictorial device to draw the viewer's gaze, but may also draw upon eye-witness accounts of the first handover of the sons to Cornwallis in 1792 (Singleton himself never went to India):

'The Princes were dressed in long white muslin gowns, and red turbans, they had several rows of large pearls round their necks, from which was suspended an ornament consisting of a ruby and an emerald of considerable size, surrounded by large brilliants; and in their turbans, each had a sprig of rich pearls.' (Major Alexander Dirom, A narrative of the campaign in India, which terminated the war with Tippoo Sultan in 1792, Bulmer and Co., London, 1794, p. 229).

A crouching figure to the bottom right hand corner of the painting holds a flag which drapes across the floor. Just visible to one side of the flag is a sun motif with curving rays. This motif bears a similarity to those found on a flag of Tipu Sultan illustrated in Henry Beveridge, Esq., A Comprehensive History of India, Civil, Military, and Social, from the First Landing of the English to the Suppression of the Sepoy Revolt; including an Outline of the Early History of Hindoostan', Vol. II, p. 705. The inclusion of this flag both underlines the fall of Tipu and acts as a counter to the raised British flag in the upper left of the painting, echoing its sweeping lines and enhancing the harmony of the image in addition to the narrative of the work.

The Visual Influence of the Painting

The present painting is one of the key images of the British in India, alongside Colonel Morduant's Cockmatch and The Relief of Lucknow. Singleton's Seringapatam paintings inspired multiple reproductions, with five engravers, Laminet, B. Rogers, L. and N. Schiavonetti and Anthony Cardon, working on the series. The prints were published in various editions between 1801 and 1802, in England, France and Germany (Mildred Archer, India and British Portraiture 1770-1825, London, 1979, pp. 432-33). A complete series of the engravings is in the Royal Collection Trust (RCIN 750588). An engraving of the present painting is in the British Museum, London (1850,1014.215). For another hand-coloured engraving of the present lot sold in these rooms, see Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 21 April 2015, lot 164A.