Portrait of Suraj Singh Rathor, Raja of Marwar and Maternal Uncle of Shah Jahan: A Page from the Prince Khurram Album (c. 1600): Art, History and Details

Portrait of Suraj Singh Rathor, Raja of Marwar and Maternal Uncle of Shah Jahan: A Page from the Prince Khurram Album (c. 1600) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Bishandas (Indian, active c. 1610–30).

The work and its context

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

This true-to-life portrait depicts the maternal uncle of the Mughal prince Khurram (1592-1658), who would later become the emperor Shah Jahan. His clothing and accessories-especially the six-pointed wrapped tunic made of prized translucent muslin-reveal his wealth and status. The artist’s skillful brushwork conveys the varied textures of the fabrics and sensitively renders his patient, somewhat weary expression. Prince Khurram selected this painting for inclusion in an album he assembled in 1612. Suraj Singh was a Hindu prince from Marwar, a Rajput kingdom under the auspices of the Mughal empire. His sister, a Marwar princess, was the third wife of the Mughal emperor Jahangir. Intermarriage with Hindu families is one example of the ecumenism of the early Mughal emperors, who adhered to a liberal form of Islam. Suraj Singh died of natural causes while on a military campaign with Prince Khurram in the Deccan in 1619.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of Suraj Singh Rathor, Raja of Marwar and Maternal Uncle of Shah Jahan: A Page from the Prince Khurram Album
• Date: c. 1600
• Creator attribution: Bishandas (Indian, active c. 1610–30)
• Culture: India, Mughal court, early 17th century
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Page: 29.1 x 19 cm (11 7/16 x 7 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art - Mughal
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2013.313

A detail from the museum

Emperor Shah Jahan himself wrote the label inscription under the painting.

Collection credit

Gift in honor of Madeline Neves Clapp; Gift of Mrs. Henry White Cannon by exchange; Bequest of Louise T. Cooper; Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund; From the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Glynn, Catherine Ann. "The Painting Tradition in Jodhpur." In Peacock in the Desert: The Royal Arts of Jodhpur, India. Karni Jasol, et al., 136-157. Houston: The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, 2018.

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.