Maharana Jagat Singh II Hunting (1747): Art, History and Details

Maharana Jagat Singh II Hunting (1747) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Jugarsi, son of Jiva (Indian, active mid-1700s).

The work and its context

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

One of the favorite pastimes of the Rajput nobility was hunting, a subject frequently depicted in secular painting in Rajasthan. Often much larger than other Indian paintings, hunting scenes glorified the pleasures and splendors of these stately affairs. This colorful painting depicts a royal hunt conducted by the Maharana Jagat Singh II of Udaipur. An inscription on the reverse side of the painting mentions the Maharana's name along with the hunting party's other participants, including the Maharana's brother. The hunt takes place in a detailed landscape of hills and varied vegetation. The animals (tiger, bear, wild boar, deer, stag, and antelope) are rounded up and diverted by servants (who shoot firecrackers) toward the shooting box at the center of the composition, where the royal members of the hunting party await their prey. Another group of servants with dogs approaches from the opposite direction to cut off the animals' route of escape. Some beasts are already killed or wounded, while others are trying desperately to run for their lives.

Object facts

• Title: Maharana Jagat Singh II Hunting
• Date: 1747
• Creator attribution: Jugarsi, son of Jiva (Indian, active mid-1700s)
• Culture: Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput kingdom of Mewar, Udaipur, Court of Jagat Singh (reigned 1734-51)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 42.5 x 47 cm (16 3/4 x 18 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1998.102

A detail from the museum

The painting is signed on the reverse by the artist—a rare occurrence in Indian painting. The name reads "Jugarsi, son of Jiva."

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, “Cleveland Acquires Major New Sculpture, Rare Chinese Prints, Contemporary Prints, Drawings & Photographs,” October 30, 1998, Cleveland Museum of Art Archives.
• Diamond, Debra, and Dipti Khera, eds. A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur. Munich, Germany: Hirmer Publishers; Washington, D.C.: National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, 2022.

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.