This superb charcoal study of a young unidentified nobleman is possibly attributable to the Kishangarh artist Sitaram, the son of Nihal Chand. The sitter has a barely disc🔯ernible nimbus (halo) which would indicate that, although presently unidentified, our nobleman was a member of the Kishangarh royal family.

This highly refined 𓂃and elegant portrait of the nimbate prince is executed in charcoal and appears to be drawn by the same hand as another example - formerly in the Paul F. Walter Collection which was exhibited at the Morgan Library in New York City in the exhibition titled "The Classical Tradition in Rajput Painting" in 1978. The accompanying catalog written By Dr. Pratapaditya Pal (Pal 1979) gives the drawing to Kishangarh with a possible aไttribution to the artist Sitaram.

That same drawing had been previously exhibited and sold to Paul F. Walter by the Doris Wiener Gallery in New York City in 1970. That drawing is now in the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) access꧅ion number: (M.84.229.3). The drawing is very related to ours, likely of the same nobleman, which was described by Dr. Pal as fr꧟om Kishangarh with the possibility of an attribution to Sitaram.

Another drawing of the same nobleman, in the collection of the Kirin Nadar Museum of Art (Delhi), has been mentioned as Maharaja Mokham Singh (r. 1838-41) of Kishangarh.&n♉bsp;That drawing appears to be a Nathdwara version of the Kishangarh original from the Walter Collection now at LACMA.

An example of a related Kishangarhi portrait drawing from the Howard Ho💦dgkin Collection, was 🍨sold at Sotheby's London on October 24 2017, lot 50.

Reference:

Anjan Chakraverty "Chitra-Seva" Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, cat. 10.

Pratapaditya Pal "The Classical Tradition in Rajput Painting" 1979 NY pp. 138-39, cat. 46.

Andrew Topsfield and Jagdish Mittal "Rajasthani Drawings in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, 2015, pp. 50-51.

Doris Wiener Gallery exhibition catalog "Indian Miniature Paintings" p. 45 cat. 50.

er 2017, lot 50.