Maharana Amar Singh II Is Shown Two Silver Elephants

The semi-colored drawing technique seen here, a cross between grisalle tonal drawing—known in the Mughal tradition as nim qalam—and watercolor, developed at Udaipur and is associated with a master painter in the service of Amar Singh II and Sangram Singh II in the early eighteenth century. The style of this anonymous artist, called the Stipple Master, remained a singular phenomenon at that court. He devoted himself exclusively to painting portraits of his patrons.

Credit: Cynthia Hazen Polsky and Leon B. Polsky Fund, 2003