Portrait Study

India (Rajasthan) · c. 1775

This large profile study of a man, broadly rendered with a wet brush and light colors, typifies the clear, direct style of Kishangarh. The elongated eye and exaggerated brow, characteristic of the eighteenth-century Kishangarh idiom, are apparent. Subtly shaded wash drawings like this were based on Mughal prototypes. Idealized portrait heads of men and women were popular with the Mughal court, and the theme transferred easily to Kishangarh, site of a sophisticated graphic tradition. Wash drawings were, however, relatively rare in other Rajput court ateliers.