Recording the royals’ journey through portraits

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Walking through the royal lanes, Tasveer Art brought a rare glimpse of vintage India with a collection of sepia-toned photographs.

Revisiting an opulent past, the exhibition held at Kolkata’s Seagull Foundation for the Arts, introduced the onlookers to a few regal men whom the world still calls, the Maharajas of India.
“The photographs in this exhibition are an evocation of princely India and a historical record of an age we will never again experience. Each portrait reflects an unmistakable aura of majesty, effortlessly carried and eloquently captured. The photographic portrait is never truly opaque and behind the façade of splendid dress and gleaming jewels, we get a rare glimpse of human side of the sitters,” says Nathaniel Gaskell, curator of the exhibition.
The collection is quite diverse in the sense that it has brought together the rulers of different regions of India under a single title. Beginning with the Maharaja of Benaras, the following photographs show the ruler of Bandswa, Pratapgarh to name a few. Another noticeable fact is that it is not limited to grown up faces, as a few young princes have also found place in the collection.
While most of the photographers who saved these rare moments for posterity remain unknown, a few do find their name preserved along with their subject. Jehangir Sorabji has been credited for practicing his photography skills on the likes of the Nawab of Palitana, the Thakore of Limbdi, Nawab of Junagad and the Nizam of Hyderabad. While K.L. Saeed finds mention with the Maharaja of Porbandar, Maharaja of Palanpur. Going by the records, it is evident Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Navanagar preferred to utilise the services of an English photographer who goes by the name of Van Dyk. Some of the photographs reserve the photo credits for studios like Jhonston and Hoffman, Devare and Company, and Venon and Company, Bombay.
“Photographic portraits from around the 20th century mark a departure from the practice of courtly painting and constitute a new era in the rich history of portraiture in India. Interestingly, the influence of painting is still evident in many of the photographs seen here. Studios and patrons were interested in exploiting photography as a replacement for painting, but they adopted many of the latter’s visual devices as means of legitimising the new art form,” adds Gaskell.
Captured in the frame of time, the effort reflected an era when royalty held centre stage, and the men who inherited the title and the throne were ensured of a place in the pages of history. Today, they remain precious remnants of a time gone by.