Fancy Ball, Indore (1886): Art, History and Details

Fancy Ball, Indore (1886) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Raja Deen Dayal (Indian, 1844–1905).

The work and its context

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

Entertainments at “fancy dress” or costume parties often included amateur theatricals or tableaux vivants—static scenes drawn from literature, history, or artworks. Here, Deen Dayal captured three moments distilled from a popular novel or play. The guests—all middle or upper class—perform as characters ranging from the working class to ladies and gentlemen. Because the photographic technology of the time required strong daylight, the photographs would have been made on a separate occasion, not at the party.

Object facts

• Title: Fancy Ball, Indore
• Date: 1886
• Creator attribution: Raja Deen Dayal (Indian, 1844–1905)
• Culture: India
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: albumen print
• Dimensions: Image: 12.2 x 19.9 cm (4 13/16 x 7 13/16 in.); Paper: 12.9 x 19.9 cm (5 1/16 x 7 13/16 in.)
• Collection: PH - Misc. 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2016.266.36

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

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.