Royal Elephant Ramkali with a Mahout (c. 1761): Art, History and Details

Royal Elephant Ramkali with a Mahout (c. 1761) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

The mahout (elephant driver), directs the confident female elephant at a brisk trot, with bells swinging in response to her movements. This painting belongs to a series depicting the elephants in the royal stables at Udaipur, each one named in the upper margin. Elephants have been a potent emblem for royalty in India for more than three thousand years.

Object facts

• Title: Royal Elephant Ramkali with a Mahout
• Date: c. 1761
• Culture: Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput kingdom of Mewar, Udaipur, Court of Ari Singh (reigned 1761-73)
• Type: Painting
• Technique: gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Painting: 20.6 x 21.4 cm (8 1/8 x 8 7/16 in.); Overall: 24.1 x 25 cm (9 1/2 x 9 13/16 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2005.202

A detail from the museum

The name Ramkali is a popular nickname for young girls in some parts of northern India.

Collection credit

Gift of Dr. Norman Zaworski

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.