The Mutiny of the Heroine Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi (c. 1890): Art, History and Details

The Mutiny of the Heroine Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi (c. 1890) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Rani Lakshmi Bai was a widow of Raja Gangadhar Rao, the Maharaja of Jhansi, whose state had been annexed by the British. On June 10, 1857, following a massacre of Europeans by local Indian troops, she was proclaimed ruler. One of the first freedom fighters, she resisted the British and was killed in June 1858. She later became a legendary mutiny heroine and an icon for the Indian independence movement. In this image she wears a British crown and has her sword raised.

Object facts

• Title: The Mutiny of the Heroine Rani Lakshmi Bai of Jhansi
• Date: c. 1890
• Culture: Eastern India, Bengal, Kolkata, Kalighat
• Type: Painting
• Technique: Gum tempera, graphite, ink, and tin on paper
• Dimensions: Secondary Support: 48.5 x 29.6 cm (19 1/8 x 11 5/8 in.); Painting only: 45.5 x 28 cm (17 15/16 x 11 in.)
• Collection: Indian Art
• Department: Indian and Southeast Asian Art
• Accession number: 2003.146

Collection credit

Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward

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.