*A watercolor portrait of Ranjit Singh, c.1816-29* (BL)
*A portrait of Ranjit Singh, Maharaja of the Punjab, 1780-1839, by Emily Eden; London, 1844* (BL)
"The Court of Ranjit Singh" (including his French mercenaries), an engraving from the 1840's (?)
Source: ebay, Nov. 2005
*A modern portrait of Maharajah Ranjit Singh: a watercolor "on old paper"*
Source: http://www.exoticindia.com/product/HY02/
(downloaded Sept. 2001)
Commentary by the seller:
"Describing Maharaja Ranjit Singh, with whom he had several encounters during his stay in the Punjab from 1829 to 1832, the Frenchman Jacquemont wrote: "He is a thin little man with an attractive face, though he has lost an eye from small pox which has otherwise disfigured him little. His right eye, which remains, is very large, his nose is fine and slightly turned up, his mouth thin, his teeth excellent. He wears slight moustaches which he twists incessantly with his finger, and a long thin beard which falls to his chest…." When Osborne, Lord Auckland's nephew, met Ranjit Singh, he found him sitting "cross-legged in a golden chair, dressed in simple white, wearing no ornaments but a single string of enormous pearls round the waist, and the celebrated Koh-y-Nur, the mountain of light, on his arm - the jewel rivalled, if nor surpassed, in brilliance by the glance of fire which every now and then shot from his single eye as it wandered restlessly round the circle…" Descriptions of this kind, and comments on the Great Maharaja's character, his strengths and his failings, some very critical, some most adulatory, most of them engaging, appear in every single account left by the stream of European visitors who came to these parts during the Maharaja's times. One reads about everything: his personal bravery, his love of horses, his shrewd silences, his insatiable curiosity, his devout nature, and his love of wine...."References:
Archer, W.G. Paintings of the Sikhs. London, 1966.
Goswamy, B.N. Piety and Splendor (Exhibition Catalogue). National Museum, New Delhi, 2000.
Stronge, Susan, ed. The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms. London, 1999.
A bazaar art print
Source: ebay, Dec. 2012
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