Raja Jivan Ram: A Professional Indian Portrait Painter of the Early Nineteenth Century

Abstract

• The painter Jivan Ram is referenced in 19th-century European publications on India, but little of his work was known from actual examples. He was the first Indian artist totally to abandon the traditional techniques of Indian miniatures and instead to work fully in European techniques of oil painting and portrait miniatures. He also abandoned the traditional reliance of the Indian artist on court patronage and set himself up as a portrait artist in his own right. This article traces for the first time a full outline of his career in the light especially of new works that have appeared over the last twenty years, many now in the British Library.