Royal women shooting from a pavilion (c. 1810): Art, History and Details

Royal women shooting from a pavilion (c. 1810) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Two magnificent lions arrived at a pond, and the male turns back, sensing that something has alerted the deer. From a hunting lodge, a princess aims her musket in their direction. On the far banks of the pond is an abstract phallic sculpture (linga) on a spouted pedestal, indicating the sacred presence of the Hindu god Shiva. In front of the linga is an image of Shiva’s mount, the bull Nandi. The linga and bull bear traces of worship: horizontal marks in saffron, turmeric, and gold that communicate the worshiper’s religious affiliation and an inverted lotus flower. Devotion to Shiva is a prerequisite for the abundance of the land.

Object facts

• Title: Royal women shooting from a pavilion
• Date: c. 1810
• Culture: Northwestern India, Rajasthan, Rajput Kingdom of Kota
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 34.3 x 27.3 cm (13 1/2 x 10 3/4 in.); Sheet with border: 38.1 x 31.1 cm (15 x 12 1/4 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 1955.48

A detail from the museum

On the distant horizon a European rides an elephant, while a dog runs alongside.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• A related painting of Royal Women Shooting Lions is in the collection of the Royal Ontario Museum.
• Lee, Sherman. "The Decorative and the Super-Real: Two Rajasthani Miniatures." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 44, no. 8 (October 1957): 180-183.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

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.