Artwork Details

Overview

Title: Maharaja Suraj Mal with a Hawk

Date: 1730–40

Culture: India, Himachal Pradesh, Nurpur

Medium: Opaque watercolor with gold on paper

Dimensions:

Image: 7 11/16 × 5 3/8 in. (19.6 × 13.6 cm)

Framed: 12 5/8 × 10 1/4 × 3/4 in. (32.1 × 26 × 1.9 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: The Howard Hodgkin Collection, on loan from the Howard Hodgkin Indian Collection Trust

Accession Number: L.2022.30.10

Rights and Reproduction: Photo by Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

Exhibition History: New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Indian Skies: The Howard Hodgkin Collection of Indian Court Painting," February 6–June 9, 2024.

References: Topsfield, Andrew. "The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, February 2-–April 22, 2012." Visions of Mughal India: The Collection of Howard Hodgkin. Exh. cat. Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2012, pp. 152–53, cat. no. 64.

Source description:

The ancestry of falconry, a sport much favored by Indian rulers, can be traced back to the seminomadic peoples of Central Asia. As expressed in Hindu court painting, this vogue is directly attributable to the fashion established by the Mughal courts. The refined hunting abilities of predatory birds, such as their strength and speed in striking prey, were qualities much admired in the martial culture of the Hindu courts. Rajput and Pahari rulers recorded their most beloved animal—birds of prey as well as elephants and stallions—in paintings, both for enjoyment and to chronicle the accoutrements of their reign. Here we see the ruler of a small Pahari hill state, Maharaja Suraj Mal of Nurpur, posed with his prized hunting bird.