A Family of Tartars (c. 1885): Art, History and Details

A Family of Tartars (c. 1885) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This painting depicts men of Turkic descent migrating into India from western Asia. No longer with the ambition to conquer, like the Turko-Mongol rulers Timur (d. 1405) and Babur (c. 1530), the first Mughal emperor, these migrants are seeking new lands in which to settle as immigrants. The highly detailed subjects are placed against a plain background, as if the figures were designed for objective study and categorization. Indian artists made works such as this for the British in India, who were interested in collecting accurate visual records of flora, fauna, and ethnic groups who inhabited the land they colonized in 1858.

Object facts

• Title: A Family of Tartars
• Date: c. 1885
• Culture: India, Punjab, probably Lahore, Company School, 19th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 25.3 x 33.8 cm (9 15/16 x 13 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2011.137

Collection credit

Gift of Maxeen and John Flower in honor of Dr. Stanislaw Czuma

Further reading listed by the museum

• “Art of Asia Acquired by North American Museums, 2010-2011.” Archives of Asian Art, vol. 62, 2012, pp. 105–153.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.