A battle scene, with elephants and infantry in combat, depicting an engagement in the wars between the Siamese and Burmese, presented to E. R. Morris by Prince Alangkarn, brother of the King of Siam, in Bangkok in 1899

Siam (modern Thailand), circa 1880-99

(2)

Footnotes

Provenance
E. R. Morris: presented to him by Prince Alangkarn (1860-1921), the brother of the King of Siam, in Bangkok in 1899.
Thence by descent in the same family until 2024.

Published
M. Collis, British Merchant Adventurers, London 1942, col. pl. 3.


There is a very similar battle scene, Thailand, early 20th century, measuring 91.5 × 109 cm. (with frame), in The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (gift from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation's Southeast Asian Art Collection, 2002, acc. no. 35.229). The composition also depicts, for example, the clash of the two elephants in the foreground; the distinctive tiered white umbrellas (in almost the same disposition as in our painting); the ranks of soldiers en echelon aiming their muskets.

For a discussion on this genre of paintings, from which much of this note is derived, see Rebecca S. Hall, 'Painting History: Representing Chronicles in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Siam', in The Journal of the Walters Art Museum, 73 (2018), pp. 35-42.

The first of the two paintings (fig. 1 in Hall's article) is a battle scene, with Siamese and Burmese officers and soldiers mounted on elephants while soldiers standing on the ground fire rifles. It is, as Hall argues, an imaginary representation of a battle from several centuries earlier, incorporating some elements of combat as waged during the Ayutthaya period (1351–1767). The details of clothing are probably based on later examples, in Hall's opinion.

Possible subjects include the Siamese King Naresuan fighting the Burmese crown prince Mingyi Swa at the battle of Yuthahatthi in January 1593; or the battle between Queen Suriyothai and the Viceroy of Prome in the Burmese-Siamese War of 1548-49 (an example available online, dated 1887, by the artist Prince Narisara Nuvadtivongs).

While the Burmese were enemies of the Siamese for centuries, and the two kingdoms were frequently at war, our painting (along with other examples) are (to quote Rebecca Hall) 'products of a particular historical moment. The colonial powers of Great Britain and France were threatening Siam's borders, and rather than see his palace overtaken by European armies, as happened in Burma, King Rama V (also known as King Chlalongkorn [reg. 1868–1910]) desired to be viewed by Europeans as an equal [...] These paintings are part of a visual program developed in the late nineteenth century that asserted a national character at a time when the creation of a modern, unified nation was of great concern to Siam's leaders'.

In 1887, Rama V held a painting competition inviting artists to produce paintings that illustrated the history of Siam. Each painting was to be accompanied by a multistanza poem known as a khlong, which were written after the completion of the compositions. A total of ninety-two paintings resulted from this competition. Many record episodes from the history of the Ayutthaya kingdom, alluding to the kingdom's status as the foundation of Siamese identity. Some depict historical events from the early years of the towns of Thonburi and Bangkok; others deal with the Ayutthaya kingdom's and the Rattanakosin kingdom's relationships with their neighbours from the late 18th Century onwards

After the competition the series of ninety-two paintings was used to decorate the royal cremation grounds. The paintings were then hung in the throne hall at the Grand Palace in Bangkok and at Bang Pa-In, the summer palace near Ayutthaya. Sometime in the twentieth century, the paintings were distributed among a number of royal households, and several entered the collections of the National Museum and the National Gallery in Bangkok.

Among the artists participating in the 1887 competition, Prince Naris (1863–1947; full name: Naritsaranuwattiwong), a cousin of Rama V, is perhaps the most famous. He was a member of the royal family of Siam, and was a government minister, general and scholar. A polymath, he became known as 'the great craftsman of Siam' and 'the prince master'. The prince was 'a perceptive and compelling artist, writer, and architect, [who] designed Wat Benchamabophit, known as the Marble Temple, in Bangkok, as well as the city's seal. He entered several works in the competition, winning first place with a painting entitled Phra Maha Uparacha Riding His Elephant to Attack King Phumintharacha's Elephant. This dark and atmospheric painting, apparently set at dusk, depicts an Ayutthaya-period king surviving his brother's attempt to take control of the kingdom. It was one of several paintings displayed at the Bang Pa-In Palace after the competition ended.

The Walters Art Museum paintings are clearly related to the series of paintings from 1887, but they are not part of the original set of ninety-two. The rules of the competition limited the entries to three sizes, with which all the documented paintings from the 1887 series are consistent: small (37 × 60 cm.), medium (44 × 76 cm.), and large (94 × 136 cm.), with the largest the exception. The dimensions of the Walters' paintings (and ours) match none of these three sizes, although their style resembles that of the works from the competition, as do their theme.

The posture of the elephant on the right in the Walters' battle painting resembles that of an elephant in a painting from the 1887 series that depicts the sixteenth-century queen Suriyothai fighting the Burmese army. Suriyothai is a national hero in Thailand because of her efforts to defeat the Burmese (she ultimately gave her life to save the king). A second painting from the 1887 series that depicts the popular king Naresuan (1555–1605) in battle also has some important similarities to the battle painting in the Walters' collection, especially in the massing of troops on the ground and their use of guns. Neither painting is a close enough match to conclude that one artist was copying another, but the similarities suggest that the artist of the Walters' paintings was at the very least emulating the historical themes and artistic styles of the 1887 series.