Maharaja Chattarsol of Kota Shooting Lions (c. 1860): Art, History and Details

Maharaja Chattarsol of Kota Shooting Lions (c. 1860) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The trope of a royal marksman shooting at a pair of lions drinking at a pond extended into the second half of the 1800s at the Kota court. This suggests that earlier examples of this theme were prized and remembered for generations. By the time this painting was made, artists had access to synthetic pigments that were developed in the West, and more brilliant blues and greens distinguish a work such as this from its predecessors.

Object facts

• Title: Maharaja Chattarsol of Kota Shooting Lions
• Date: c. 1860
• Culture: Northwest India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Kota
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Overall: 30 x 22.5 cm (11 13/16 x 8 7/8 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2011.150

Collection credit

Gift of Dr. Norman Zaworski

Further reading listed by the museum

• A related painting of Royal Women Shooting Lions is in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum.

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.