Your share link is...

A portrait drawing of Maharajah Sir Pratap Singh (1845-1922): half length, turned to the right. Signed with initials. Dated.

Maharajah Sir Pratap Singh was ruler of the princely state of Idar [Gujarat] from 1902 to 1911, and a highly decorated officer in the British Indian army. He travelled frequently to Europe, and was a friend of Queen Victoria and her family. He served as aide-de-camp to Edward VII from 1887-1910, and had a close friendship with George V. He served in the Second Afghan War (1878-80) and commanded the Jodhpur contingent during the Boxer Uprising (1899). From 1914 to 1915, as a veteran septuagenarian, he commanded his regiments in France during the First World War, and was promoted to Lieutenant General in 1916.

In December 1911 King George V and Queen Mary were proclaimed Emperor and Empress of India at the Delhi Durbar. (A durbar is a court or official reception held, traditionally, by an Indian ruler.) Almost all of the ruling princes and noblemen of India, in addition to thousands of other Indian dignitaries, attended in order to pay obeisance to the symbolic heads of British colonial power. As part of their tour of British India, the royal couple visited Calcutta on 30th December. On 5th January the Calcutta Pageant was mounted in their honour at the Maidan (nicknamed the Hyde Park of Calcutta). See RCIN 931140, 931141. This portrait of Maharajah Sir Pratap Singh is probably among the many drawings made during the visit to Calcutta, which were subsequently mounted in an album alongside drawings produced during the royal tour of the British Empire in 1901.

The artist and illustrator George Percy Jacomb-Hood trained at the Slade School of Art and in Paris before becoming artist-correspondent of The Graphic. It was in this role that he accompanied several royal visits to India at the start of the century. In October 1911 he travelled as part of the Royal suite to India on HMS Medina with King George V and Queen Mary.