Painting thumbnail 1
Painting thumbnail 2
Not currently on display at the V&A

Painting

19th century (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

Two men walk across a landscape, dressed in white loincloths, white turban bands and black and white shawls. They carry forked sticks. The painting is typical of works done in the Punjab, the region now divided between India and Pakistan, in the 1840s. The men are cultivators, and probably Jats, who widely converted to Sikhism. Their cut hair suggests that these men were Hindus, as conventional portraiture of the time makes a clear distinction between Sikh men with their uncut hair gathered into a topknot underneath their turban, and Hindus or Muslims, whose cut hair is usually shown underneath any head covering.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Painted in opaque watercolour on paper
Brief description
Painting, two cultivators, opaque watercolour on paper, Punjab Plain, 19th century
Physical description
Painting, in opaque watercolour on paper, two cultivators dressed in white loincloths, white turban bands and black and white shawls, walk across a field, each carrying a forked stick.
Dimensions
  • Height: 180mm (maximum)
  • Width: 138mm (maximum)
  • Image within innermost painted borders height: 153mm
  • Image within innermost painted borders width: 110mm (maximum)
27/07/2013 dimensions measured as part of Indian Paintings Cataloguing Project 2013
Content description
Two cultivators, dressed in white loincloths, white turban bands and black and white shawls, walk across a field, each carrying a forked stick.
Marks and inscriptions
Inscribed on reverse in Persian characters, and in English in pencil: "For .... book".
Object history
IS.477 to 489-1950 were purchased for £5 in 1950.
Production
Sikh
Subjects depicted
Summary
Two men walk across a landscape, dressed in white loincloths, white turban bands and black and white shawls. They carry forked sticks. The painting is typical of works done in the Punjab, the region now divided between India and Pakistan, in the 1840s. The men are cultivators, and probably Jats, who widely converted to Sikhism. Their cut hair suggests that these men were Hindus, as conventional portraiture of the time makes a clear distinction between Sikh men with their uncut hair gathered into a topknot underneath their turban, and Hindus or Muslims, whose cut hair is usually shown underneath any head covering.
Bibliographic reference
Paintings of the Sikhs / W.G. Archer. London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1966 cat. 30 (ii), p. 157, and illus. fig. 77.
Collection
Accession number
IS.488-1950

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Record createdNovember 21, 2002
Record URL
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