His Eminence Commander in Chief and Party, Shimla (1887): Art, History and Details

His Eminence Commander in Chief and Party, Shimla (1887) 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:

In 1887 Deen Dayal was appointed photographer to the commander in chief of the British Indian Army, Field Marshal Frederick Roberts (1832–1914) (seated, third from left). This casually dressed group of Roberts’s family and friends had just enjoyed a week of formal events, including a “fancy dress” ball celebrating the 50th anniversary of Queen Victoria’s accession to the throne. That party inaugurated a ballroom built onto Roberts’s home. The following day, Roberts was made Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire. The tiger skin attests to British success at big game hunting. Its use as a rug reveals a very different attitude toward this favored pastime among the British than the Indians, for whom it symbolized royal power.

Object facts

• Title: His Eminence Commander in Chief and Party, Shimla
• Date: 1887
• Creator attribution: Raja Deen Dayal (Indian, 1844–1905)
• Culture: India
• Type: Photograph
• Technique: albumen print
• Dimensions: Image: 19.5 x 27.2 cm (7 11/16 x 10 11/16 in.); Paper: 19.5 x 27.2 cm (7 11/16 x 10 11/16 in.)
• Collection: PH - Misc. 19th Century
• Department: Photography
• Accession number: 2016.266.4

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.