Private collection
On loan to the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, 1958-2005
Acquired 2006

Some surface abrasions, age-related staining and rubbed spots in the dark green ground. Slightly trimmed and some losses to edges. Verso: slight staining and old adhesions. Conservation framed.
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A rare early Rajasthani miniature.  A lord riding a rearing chestnut-color stallion holds a bow and is preparing to lock an arrow.  He wears a long diaphanous white muslin shirt over yellow paijama trousers, with a very finely rendered striped Mughal-style pagri (cap) on his head.  His stylized saddle a brilliant orange shade and a quiver full of arrows behind him.  Against a flat dark green ground.  The inscription above in black ink Devanagari reads "jagadegha pavara" perhaps naming our prince or his attributes.

The delicate features of the noble's face with its naturalistic shading, the early almost Sultanate style rounded saddle-guards in bright orange, distinctive pagri and diaphanous muslin jama all suggest a date in the second♍ quarter of the Seventeenth Century. 

An unusuꦰal and very fine early painting, from a locale in Rajasthan significantly influenced by the Mughal manner - perhaps Ajmer - or a thikana of Marwar, possibly Nagaur.  There are few published comparables exta👍nt, even in a related style, with none presently known to us from a series or by the same hand.  It is an enigmatic work whose discovery helps trace the development of Seventeenth Century Rajput painting and its Mughal influences.