Enrica Medugno
Senior Sale Coordinator
Lot 283
A large portrait of Maharajah Sher Singh (reg. 1841-43) Punjab, circa 1860-70
22 May 2025, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £2,304 inc. premium
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Oliver White
Head of Department
A large portrait of Maharajah Sher Singh (reg. 1841-43)
Punjab, circa 1860-70
Punjab, circa 1860-70
gouache and gold on paper, trimmed and irregularly shaped, earlier labels now attached to mount Sher Singh and Amritsar
340 x 240 mm.
340 x 240 mm.
Footnotes
Sher Singh was Ranjit Singh's second son from his first wife, Rani Mahtab Kaur. He was brave, having seen much service with the Khalsa Army, and was as a consequence popular with the soldiery. It was with their aid that he was able to establish himself on the Sikh throne in 1841 following the siege of the citadel of Lahore.
He was favourably disposed towards his British neighbours, scrupulously adhering to his father's policy regarding them. It was solely owing to Sher Singh's intervention that the British Army, returning from Afghanistan in 1842, was allowed undisputed passage through Punjab. Many of his Sikh nobles were anxious to attack it as they thought the potent spell of victory, so long attached to the British arms, had been broken at Kabul and by the policy of evacuating Afghanistan. In September 1843, just two years into his reign, Sher Singh was assassinated in broad daylight by his cousins, the Sindhanwalia chiefs.
The present painting is clearly connected to a pair of portraits of the Maharajah in the Wellcome Collection, London (V0046349EL and V0046349ER).