Maharajah Ranjit Singh on horseback with attendants and sepoys
Punjab, Lahore, probably from the workshop of Imam Bakhsh Lahori, circa 1830-40
gouache and gold on paper, orange and pink borders
289 x 228 mm.
Footnotes:
Maharajah Ranjit Singh was known as a natural horseman and his love of horses was legendary. He expended considerable sums to maintain a large stable of Arabian thoroughbreds. It was a common saying that the price of the entire city of Lahore was equal to the cost of the Sikh king's horses.

The two soldiers that form part of the guard in this painting are men of the infantry, an arm of the Fauj-i-ain or regular army. The Maharajah's meritocratic character and pragmatic approach towards realising his ambitions in the early days of his empire-building career led him to create a modern army made up of all manner of warrior tribes and nations. Hindu Gurkhas, Biharis and Oriyas, as well as Muslim Punjabis and Pathans, were skilfully blended together with the Sikhs to form 19th Century Asia's most formidable fighting force. While his generals were all members of Punjab's new nobility, the men were drilled and marshalled by several dozen foreigners. They included former Napoleonic generals and English deserters from the ranks of the East India Company. Along with Italian, American, Spanish, German, Irish and Greek soldiers of fortune, all contributed to the new army's uniquely cosmopolitan fusion of military cultures. Taking the regular infantry as an example, Ranjit Singh made sure he hand-picked each man. These recruits would be drilled using French words of command.

In this Europeanised army, each soldier was given a red jacket every two years. These jackets had a lion, an elephant or a panther on the right sleeve to designate the regiment. Superior officers had no uniformity in their dress. According to General Court (one of the French officers in the Punjab), 'many wore Brandenburg jackets embellished with gold or silver, and an odd cut, poorly imitated from our hussar uniforms'.

The painter Imam Bakhsh (active circa 1825–45) was employed by the Sikh nobility but produced commissions for Claude Auguste Court and Jean Baptiste Ventura, French and Italian generals in Ranjit Singh's army. In 1838, General Ventura had French artist Alfred de Dreux paint a large oil painting based on a similar equestrian portrait of the Maharajah by Imam Bakhsh to present to King Louis-Philippe of France (Musée du Louvre Inv. 4096). In 1841 Imam Bakhsh painted another comparable equestrian portrait of Maharajah Ranjit Singh for General Court (Musee Guimet BG 399756).

The present composition is closely connected with an illustrated folio (f. 284a) in a manuscript in the Royal Ontario Museum (and sold in these rooms, Bonhams, Islamic and Indian Art, 28th April 2005, lot 115) of the Ain-i-Akbari (Chronicles of Emperor Akbar), Lahore, 1822, which shows Ranjit Singh riding, a parasol above him, surrounded by attendants. The Maharajah sits in an almost identical riding posture, holding a kerchief, and the three men behind the Maharajah and his mount are portrayed in the same poses (other figures are different).