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Secondary sourcePaintinglate 19th century

Portrait of Maharana Pratap Singh by Raja Ravi Varma

Raja Ravi Varma · late 19th century

A late 19th-century painting of Pratap Singh by Raja Ravi Varma, based on an earlier palace miniature, which became a widely reproduced modern image of him.

This widely reproduced modern portrait, based on an older palace miniature, shaped how Pratap Singh is pictured today.

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Full-length painting of a man in a grey long coat over white trousers, with an orange-and-red striped sash and tunic, a red and orange turban with a feather plume, and a red sash across his chest. He holds a tall spear in his right hand and stands on a grassy hillside with a hazy mountain landscape behind him, enclosed in a decorative gold-bordered frame.
Raja Ravi Varma, Portrait of Maharana Pratap Singh, late 19th century, based on an earlier palace miniature.

About this source

What it is

This full-length portrait of Maharana Pratap Singh was painted by Raja Ravi Varma, a well-known Indian painter of the late 19th century. According to the artist's own note, it was based on an earlier miniature made available to him from a palace. It shows a man in a grey coat with a striped sash and turban, holding a spear, standing on a hillside.

Why it matters

Raja Ravi Varma was famous for creating widely reproduced images of Indian history and mythology, and this portrait became one of the most familiar modern images of Pratap Singh. It shows how later Indian artists reinterpreted older royal portraits for a wider public, shaping how Pratap Singh is remembered today.

Look closer

  • Compare the pose and costume here with other portraits of Pratap Singh: what has stayed the same, and what has changed?
  • Why might Raja Ravi Varma have based this painting on a palace miniature rather than inventing a new image?
  • What might this kind of portrait leave out about the real conditions of Pratap Singh's life and reign?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Maharana Pratap on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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