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paintings of india in the victoria and albert museum

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Gujari ragini

Gujari ragini

Gujari ragini painting made in Amer. Quote: "This is from a series of paintings collectively known as ragamala or ‘garland of ragas’ – visual representations of musical modes and poetic verses. The joys and so... More

List from Anvar-i Suhayli, late 16th century, V&A Museum

List from Anvar-i Suhayli, late 16th century, V&A Museum

List from Anvar-i Suhayli, late 16th century, Victoria & Albert Museum

Portrait of a Sayyed, ca 1650, Bijapur, V&A

Portrait of a Sayyed, ca 1650, Bijapur, V&A

Portrait of a Sayyed, ca 1650, Bijapur, Victoria & Albert Museum

Prince riding stallion, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, Golconda, late 16th century V&A

Prince riding stallion, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, Golconda...

Prince riding stallion, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, Golconda, late 16th century V&A Museum

Alamgir II (VAM, 1890, from Jaipur)

Alamgir II (VAM, 1890, from Jaipur)

Painting, opaque watercolour and gold on paper, a portrait of Emperor Alamgir II, seated on a golden throne in a desert landscape, facign right, holding a turban ornament.

Muhammad Kam Bakhsh

Muhammad Kam Bakhsh

Painting, in opaque watercolour on paper, Muhammad Kam Bakhsh (fifth son of Aurangzeb, 1667-1709).

Nawab Sikander Jah, Nizam of Hyderabad

Nawab Sikander Jah, Nizam of Hyderabad

Following the death of the emperor Aurangzeb, the Mughal empire began to fall apart and regional courts gradually developed their own artistic identities. During the reign of the emperor Muhammad Shah (1719-48... More

Nawab Amir Khan by Govind (early 19th century)

Nawab Amir Khan by Govind (early 19th century)

Portrait of Nawab Amir Khan, standing facing right, wearing belted white robes. Painting in opaque watercolour and gold on paper. PLACE OF ORIGIN: Jaipur (made) STYLE: Jaipur MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: '4 The ... More

Bhairavi Ragini

Bhairavi Ragini

Bhairavi Ragini, Folio from the Ragamal series. According to Andrew Topsfield this miniature "is the sole remnant of the earliest known ragamala series of court quality" (Andrew Topsfield, Court Painting at U... More

Raja Ajmat Dev

Raja Ajmat Dev

Portrait of Raja Ajmat Dev of Mankot (ruled ca. 1730-1760) smoking a huqqa. 277 x 198 mm. Opaque watercolour and gold on paper. Mankot, c. 1730. Victoria and Albert Museum IS.23-1974

Krishna dancing on a lotus, c1825

Krishna dancing on a lotus, c1825

Krishna dancing on a lotus, c1825. Gouache on watermarked paper. Tiruchchirappalli. Tamil Nadu.

Radha and Krishna in Rasamanjari by Bhanudatta, Basohli, c1670

Radha and Krishna in Rasamanjari by Bhanudatta, Basohli, c1670

Radha and Krishna in Rasamanjari by Bhanudatta, Basohli, c1670. Opaque watercolour and gold on paper, with applied beetle wing fragments for ornaments.

Shiva and Devi, 1740-1770 painting

Shiva and Devi, 1740-1770 painting

Shiva and Devi, 1740-1770 painting. Mandi India. The slate blue background is typical of Mandi painting in the 18th century.

2006AY0603 jpg lajanta Gill, Buddhist painting

2006AY0603 jpg lajanta Gill, Buddhist painting

Copy of painting inside the caves of Ajanta (cave 1); Copy of painting inside the caves of Ajanta, by Robert Gill. V&A Museum as IS.55-1885. White patches are over sections in need of conservation. Original d... More

A military officer of the East India Company (cropped)

A military officer of the East India Company (cropped)

The pictures made by Indian artists for the British in India are called Company paintings. This one shows a military officer of the East India Company. The Indian artist has used the native technique and the s... More

A military officer of the East India Company

A military officer of the East India Company

The pictures made by Indian artists for the British in India are called Company paintings. This one shows a military officer of the East India Company. The Indian artist has used the native technique and the s... More

A Mughal warrior and his wife

A Mughal warrior and his wife

This is a page from the Boileau Album. The album contains 42 Company paintings probably made by an artist from Thanjavur (Tanjore) living in Madras. Painting in Madras at this early period appears to have been ... More

Bust portrait of the Hindu reformer Ram Mohan Roy.

Bust portrait of the Hindu reformer Ram Mohan Roy.

This Company Painting (a painting made by an Indian artist for the British in India) is a portrait of the Hindu reformer Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833). He came from a distinguished Brahmin family in Bengal. H... More

Krishna's combat with Indra - Public domain dedication image

Krishna's combat with Indra - Public domain dedication image

The Harivamsa, an appendix of Razmnama,"Genealogy of Hari" was a continuation of the great Sanskrit text, the Mahabharata. The Mughal emperor Akbar ordered it to be translated into Persian so that it could be ... More

Portrait of Begam Samru - Public domain print

Portrait of Begam Samru - Public domain print

This Company painting is by Jiwan Das of Delhi and is a portrait of Begam Samru, a remarkable Kashmiri woman who started out as a dancing-girl. She originally married the adventurer Walter Reinhardt, who saile... More

Portrait of East India Company official

Portrait of East India Company official

The pictures made by Indian artists for the British in India are called Company paintings. This one probably depicts William Fullerton of Rosemount, who joined the East India Company's service in 1744 and was ... More

Portrait of Thakur Bhoj Raj Singh

Portrait of Thakur Bhoj Raj Singh

This Company Painting is a portrait of Thakur Bhoj Raj Singh seated on a European chair holding the mouthpiece of a huqqa. It was drawn by an artist named Gopal at Agra in 1874 and bears a label on both the fr... More

Portrait of Thakur Raja Bakhtawar Singh, standing in a European-style interior.

Portrait of Thakur Raja Bakhtawar Singh, standing in a European-style ...

'Company paintings' were produced by Indian artists for Europeans living and working in the Indian subcontinent, especially British employees of the East India Company. They represent a fusion of traditional I... More

Raja Sarabhoji of Tanjore - Public domain portrait painting

Raja Sarabhoji of Tanjore - Public domain portrait painting

A local artist painted this portrait of Raja Sarabhoji of Tanjore (Thanjavur) on glass around 1860. The raja is holding a flower. This is a common feature of portraits of Indian rulers. It symbolises the sitte... More

Shiva on the bull Nandi, destroying demons.

Shiva on the bull Nandi, destroying demons.

;Physical description This painting depicts Shiva on the bull Nandi, destroying demons. Place of Origin Jaipur, India (made) Date ca. 1880 (made) Artist/maker Unknown (production) Materials and Techniques ... More

Ten incarnations of Vishnu - Drawing. Public domain image.

Ten incarnations of Vishnu - Drawing. Public domain image.

his is a detail from a horizontal scroll-painting depicting Hindu deities. It is a Company painting (the name given to paintings made by Indian artists for the British in India). William Marsden, who served in... More

Bhairava raga, Ragamala, Chunar, 1591

Bhairava raga, Ragamala, Chunar, 1591

Bhairava raga, Ragamala, Chunar, near Varanasi, 1591. Opaque watercolour on paper, by pupils of Mir Sayyid 'Ali, an artist at the court of the Mughal Emperor, Akbar.

One of six figures from the Mughal emperor's ceremonial procession on the occasion of the Id.

One of six figures from the Mughal emperor's ceremonial procession on ...

An elephant with a mahout and a standard-bearer carrying a green standard with a gold sun. One of a set of six images from the Mughal emperor's ceremonial procession on the occasion of Id.

Oziashumphrey - Public domain portrait painting

Oziashumphrey - Public domain portrait painting

Ozias Humphry, RA, 1742-1810, Portrait of Hyder Beg Khan, Dated 1786, Watercolour on ivory, Inscribed on the backing paper, probably by the artist, ‘Hyder Beg Khan / the minister of [...] Asaf-ud-Daula / 1786 ... More

Ajanta dancing girl now and then

Ajanta dancing girl now and then

2012, 1885https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O115444/copy-of-painting-inside-the-oil-painting-gill-robert/

Dancing girl ajanta - Egypt

Dancing girl ajanta - Egypt

"Detail from Ajanta painting by Robert Gill. Museum no. IS.53-1885.V&A page on the object Photograph by V&A Photographic Studio"

Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva seated on lotuses with their consorts, ca1770

Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva seated on lotuses with their consorts, ca1770

Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva seated on lotuses with their consorts, Saraswati, Lakshmi and Paravati respectively. ca 1770. Guler, India. "The three greatest Hindu deities are shown here together with their consort... More

Four women selling food-grains, vegetables and fruit

Four women selling food-grains, vegetables and fruit

The pictures made by Indian artists for the British in India are called Company paintings. The artist Shiva Dayal Lal, who worked in Patna, created this one around 1850. He relied to a great extent on patronag... More

Hindu Gods: Sati ceremony

Hindu Gods: Sati ceremony

The pictures made by Indian artists for the British in India are called Company paintings. This one depicts the practice of sati (suttee) or widow-burning. The word is the Sanskrit for 'good woman' or 'true wi... More

Shiva and Devi - A painting of two men and a dog

Shiva and Devi - A painting of two men and a dog

Shiva and Devi Mandi, c. 1750 Public domain photograph of 18th-century Indian painting, free to use, no copyright restrictions image - Picryl description

Portrait of Ishwari Sen of Mandi

Portrait of Ishwari Sen of Mandi

This Company painting is a three-quarter length portrait of Ishwari Sen (1784-1826), Raja of Mandi in the Panjab Hills. He holds a huqqa-stem, with a Kashmir shawl draped over his left arm. The painting was pr... More

Toddy-tapper climbing a toddy palm 1785

Toddy-tapper climbing a toddy palm 1785

A Toddy tapper collecting sap from a palm tree, with a woman and child at the base of the tree. Opaque watercolor on paper, painted in Madras in approximately 1785. From the Arts of India 1550-1900 collection ... More

Toddy-tapper climbing a toddy palm 1785.jpg (cropped)

Toddy-tapper climbing a toddy palm 1785.jpg (cropped)

A Toddy tapper collecting sap from a palm tree, with a woman and child at the base of the tree. Opaque watercolor on paper, painted in Madras in approximately 1785. From the Arts of India 1550-1900 collection ... More

William Simpson - Gateway of the Buddhist Top at Sanchi

William Simpson - Gateway of the Buddhist Top at Sanchi

Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour on paper depicting the Gateway of the Sanchi Stupa before restoration

William Simpson - Worship of the Devi at Kothi, near Chini

William Simpson - Worship of the Devi at Kothi, near Chini

Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour on paper depicting the Worship of the Devi at Kothi, near Chini

William Simpson - Buddhist stupa at Sarnath, Benaras

William Simpson - Buddhist stupa at Sarnath, Benaras

Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour on paper depicting the Buddhist stupa at Sarnath, Benaras

William Simpson - Lama in a monastery working the prayer wheels

William Simpson - Lama in a monastery working the prayer wheels

Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour on paper depicting the interior of a Buddhist monastery (probably in Ladakh) he saw on his trip May 1861-July 1861

William Simpson - View of the Kaiser Bagh in Lucknow

William Simpson - View of the Kaiser Bagh in Lucknow

Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour on paper depicting the Kaiser Bagh Gates in Lucknow

William Simpson - The Sanchi tope, Tanjore

William Simpson - The Sanchi tope, Tanjore

Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour on paper depicting the Sanchi Stupa before restoration

William Simpson - Bull Nandi, Kashi Vishwanath Temple

William Simpson - Bull Nandi, Kashi Vishwanath Temple

Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour on paper depicting The Bull Nandi in the courtyard of the Golden Temple, Benares

William Simpson - Kailasanatha temple, Ellora

William Simpson - Kailasanatha temple, Ellora

Pencil, pen and ink and watercolour on paper depicting the Kailash temple (Ellora)

Painting of a Sikh sardar, Lahore, ca.1835–45

Painting of a Sikh sardar, Lahore, ca.1835–45

Painting of a Sikh sardar, ca.1835–45; watercolour and ink on paper, Lahore. Held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.