Maharaja Shri Anand Singh-ji and His Consort

About the Artwork

The artist used metallic paint to indicate the sumptuous materials of the carpet covered with roses that marks the place of the royal couple. The king affectionately slings one arm around the shoulders of his queen, who carelessly allows wine to flow out of the bottle. A gigantic indigo-and-gold cushion provides their backdrop, excluding their attendant. The blue and white arabesques in the spandrels—triangular spaces above the arch—point to the couple’s international sophistication; the elite in northwestern India imported blue-and-white Dutch tiles and Chinese porcelain.

Inscriptions

sabī māhārājā śrī ānada sagaha jī rī ustai murāda nijara kīvī dīvālī rī saṃ[vata] 1786 mītī kāti suda 1 kīvī āṃhāṃmada rī

Exhibition history

Paintings of Bikaner – Indian Gallery 242 Rotation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (November 7, 2019-April 5, 2020). Carpets and Canopies in Mughal India (Indian art rotation). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 22-September 8, 2024).

Quick Overview

Artist: Ustad Murad (Indian, active 1700s)
Date: 1729
Medium: Gum tempera, silver, and gold on paper
Dimensions: Page: 22.2 x 16.8 cm (8 3/4 x 6 5/8 in.); Miniature: 15.2 x 10.8 cm (6 x 4 1/4 in.)
Type: Painting
Classification: Painting
Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
Credit line: Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
Accession no.: 2018.195

Provenance

?–2018: (Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Barbara Timmer, Beverly Hills, CA, partial sale and gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art) 20180: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Data retrieved from the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.