Raj Man Singh Chitrakar, attributed: Portrait of Colonel Ranabir Singh Thapa. C. 1830. Gouache with gold on paper. 51×38 cm.

Portrait of Colonel Ranabir Singh Thapa sitting in a chair with presumably his children, surrounded by furniture, on the chest a bouquet of flowers, a desk with a.o. a pocket watch and large painting with a merchant ship and a curtain hanging from the ceiling. C. 1830. Gouache with gold on paper. Visible size 51×38 cm.

There exist two other paintings of Ranabir Singh Thapa very similar to the present one. Madan Chitrakar’s 2017 publication ‘Nepali Painting: Through the Ages’ (p. 234) includes a portrait of General Ranabir Singh Thapa (gouache with gold, 81cm x 56 cm, Umesh Chitrakar Collection). In the upper left-hand corner is a description in three languages: Urdu, Nepali and English. The English description reads: “this portrait of Commanding Colonel Ranabirshing Thapa drawn by his own order when 42 of age, June 21, 1832.” Chitrakar’s publication (p. 250) has an interesting portrait, ‘A Persian Trader’ from the collection of the late Maharaj Kumar Mussorie SJB Rana. This is not a Persian trader, but Ranabir Singh Thapa in a robe made from Chinese brocade; the face and the hands are similar to those of the painting of Ranabir Singh Thapa in the Umesh Chitrakar Collection: the moustache, the side-whiskers, the eyes, the ponytail, the tika, etc. In 1832, Colonel Ranabir Singh Thapa and his elder brother Prime Minister General Bhimsen Thapa were at the peak of their power. They would command only the very best painters to portray them, and according to Chitrakar, ‘this amazing work’ may have been of Raj Man Singh Chitrakar – the most eminent painter of the day (ibid). The English inscription in the picture in the Umesh Chitrakar Collection is written in a beautiful handwritten script. The script indicates that it was written by a person used to writing in the English language. This feature too points towards Raj Man Singh Chitrakar (1797–1865) who worked for Brian Houghton Hodgson, the British Resident at the Court of Nepal (1829–31 and 1833–43).

Provenance: The painting was bought by the owner from an antique shop in Khechapukhu Sadak, Kathmandu, 1976.

Condition Report:
Condition report on request. Please contact: asian@bruun-rasmussen.dk

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