Raja of Jodhpur
Edwin Lord Weeks·1888
Historical Context
Weeks's Raja of Jodhpur is a formal portrait of the Rajput ruler of the Blue City — Jaswant Singh II, who reigned from 1873 to 1895 — set against an architectural backdrop that establishes his territorial identity. Weeks produced several such formal portraits of Indian princes during his travels, which served both as records for his Salon submissions and as gifts or commissions for the sitters themselves. The Jodhpur rulers' traditional dress of deep indigo blue against the pink Mehrangarh Fort made the subject as much a study in colour as in portraiture.
Technical Analysis
Weeks renders the raja's figure with the sharp-edged modelling of a trained academic portraitist, including the precise rendering of jewellery, weapons, and textiles that establishes his status. The Fort's pink sandstone architecture behind him is handled with looser, more atmospheric brushwork that recedes the setting behind the foregrounded figure.
