Portrait of Rup Singh

This is a painting showing an important court official Rup Singh, (son of Ram Chand) in the court of Shah Jahan. Govardhan active (1596-1645) has painted this painting when he was part of the royal painting workshop at Delhi. Though his father was part of the workshop, Govardhan was relatively less influenced by his father but more affected by the Hindu-Perso-European influences. He was also Shah Jahan's most important chronicler- A. Okada curator at Guimet Museum, Paris finds him the ‘most penetrating and remarkable portraitist in the imperial atelier’. Here he has skilfully used ink, opaque watercolor, and gold on paper in this painting drawn in 1615 AD. This is an excellent example of his attention to detail about how Mughal personnel carried themselves in sixteenth century. The tunic, the dagger, the sword, turban are all standard issue for Mughal personnel. The Hindu influences are visible in the borders of the painting and even near the subject on each side where flower based designs are used. The Persian art traditions also employed the flower and petals and leaf designs for decorative purpose. The draping and surroundings in earthly dull colour is characteristic of Govardhan. The leaf pattern filled tunic is knee length with a heavily patterned front piece paired with a yellow-coloured pajama. The official's face is clearly etched out with a moustache. He is seen wearing just the one gold ornament, two rings on the right hand and earrings. His tunic has leaf prints on. The official has two rings on his right hand which could possibly carry royal insignia on either or both.