# Maharao Umed Singh hunting tigers

**Hans Raj Joshi** (1750–1799)  
1787  
Opaque watercolor and gold on paper  
H x W (overall): 43.2 × 70.2 cm (17 × 27 5/8 in)

Courtesy of the National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, S2018.1.39. [The museum's record](https://asia.si.edu/object/S2018.1.39/).

## About this work

Royal hunts were symbolically important expressions of kingship within the Ancient Near East, Persia and India. Beginning around 1660, artists in Kota began creating extraordinary images of rulers hunting game, which through to the mid-eighteenth century deployed calligraphic contour lines to render animals with great vivacity in highly textured landscapes. This later hunt scene deploys solid blocks of color - lavender, salmon, orange and teal - that play off the textured sage greens of the forest. The composition demands that the viewer search through the foliage for a tiger represented multiple times in a way that perhaps evokes the act of looking for game in the jungle. On the right, a tiger mauls one of the servants of the hunt. At top center, a nobleman, probably the powerful Zalim Singh, shoots from a a hunting platform at the tiger. The tiger subsequently appears on the left, charging towards Umed Singh, with white halo and dressed in camouflage green, who shoots from a hunting platform. Visible above and below the tiger is the lattice-work enclosure that was built to drive game towards the ruler.

_Text from the National Museum of Asian Art._

Hans Raj Joshi painted this in 1787, aged 37. It is now at the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC.

### How it was made

- **Opaque watercolour.** Watercolour made opaque with white or chalk and laid in flat, even layers. Persian and Indian painters ground their colours from minerals, applied them with the finest brushes and burnished the finished page.
- **Watercolour.** Pigment in gum arabic, thinned with water and laid in transparent washes. Nothing white is painted: the light is the paper showing through.

### [Hans Raj Joshi](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/hans-raj-joshi)

1750–1799

## Facts

- Type: Painting
- Culture: Himalayan peoples; South Asians
- The artist was 37
- Real size: about 17 × 28 in (43 × 70 cm). The 20 × 30 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 18th century
- Subjects: South Asian and Himalayan Art, Hunting, Portraits, Tiger
- Colour: olive
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1819.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1819/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86; 24 × 36 in $108; 30 × 40 in $148
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208; 24 × 36 in $258; 30 × 40 in $338
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118; 20 × 30 in $148; 24 × 36 in $178; 30 × 40 in $228
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5; 24 × 36 in $5; 30 × 40 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/maharao-umed-singh-hunting-tigers-si-fsg-s2018-1-39).