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A game of polo. Artist(s): Ram Sahai (fl. 1760-1782).

Catalogue reference: Johnson 1,27

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This record is about the A game of polo. Artist(s): Ram Sahai (fl. 1760-1782). dating from c 1770.

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Reference
Johnson 1,27
Title
A game of polo. Artist(s): Ram Sahai (fl. 1760-1782).
Date
c 1770
Description

A game of polo. By Ram Sahai, Faizabad, c.1770. Richard Johnson Collection. Purchased 1807. Signed in lower left corner in Persian: ''amal-i ram sahai musavvir' (the work of the painter Ram Sahai); numbered 9 in Persian inventory note. Drawing with coloured wash and gold; narrow gold border and plain margin. 268 by 380 mm; page 482 by 366 mm. Two princely horsemen challenge in the centre of the open field, as their supporters watch or approach from either side. A crowd of spectators and an army are in the distance. Note: The subject is derived from a mid-seventeenth-century Mughal original. Another eighteenth-century version is in the Berlin State Museums (Kuhnel (1922), pl.112; Kheiri (1922), pl.17). The fine drawing and occasional soft colouring are features of the illustrative style current at Faizabad, and are also found in a series of illustrated maps (Add.Or.4039) made for Col. Gentil at Faizabad in 1770. Ram Sahai subsequently moved with the Oudh court to Lucknow, where he was later employed by Johnson, 'see' Johnson Album 54, various paintings).

Held by
British Library: Asian and African Studies
Former department reference
J.1,27
Legal status
Not Public Record(s)
Language
Not applicable
Physical description
1 Item
Access conditions

Unrestricted. Appointment required to view these records. Please consult Asian and African Studies Print Room staff.

Physical condition
Medium: tinted drawing.
Unpublished finding aids
Toby Falk and Mildred Archer, Indian miniatures in the India Office Library (London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1981), 261
Record URL
https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/888475cb-f76f-43e6-b59e-38436059945d/

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Within the fonds: (British Library) Johnson Album

British Library, Visual Arts, Richard Johnson Collection

38 records

Within the file: Johnson 1

Total of 30 leaves separately mounted. Mostly male portraits with no obvious common...

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A game of polo. Artist(s): Ram Sahai (fl. 1760-1782).