Portrait of Fateh Singh, Maharana of Udaipur & Mewar

This work is an example of early painted portrait photography in India in the late 1800s through the early 1900s. With the limitation of photographic technology of the time, painting photographs was functional as well as decorative in that it was necessary for clearing up pictures blurred by the development process or correcting small errors in the image. The painted aspects of the work reflect the dignity and power befitting of the sitter’s social rank. Fateh Singh ruled the region of Udaipur and Mewar for 46 years from 1884 to 1930. The effects of the paint on the image range from the subtle glow of the sitter’s beard to the thick, expressionist-like brush strokes of the landscape in the window.