The Rajah and His Sons, Punnah
Louis-Théophile Marie Rousselet
1866
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Louis-Théophile Marie Rousselet
1866
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
The Rajah and His Sons, Punnah is a 1866 by Louis-Théophile Marie Rousselet, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a tall, bearded man in a white robe sitting on a low throne, three boys beside him, all dressed in rich fabrics and jewels. Rousselet made this picture in India, not France. He traveled there in the 1860s and learned photography so he could record what he saw more accurately. This painting is based on one of those photos. If you like how light and shadow shape the faces, look up *chiaroscuro*.
Concerned that his drawings did not do justice to the splendor of India’s monuments, Rousselet learned photography in India that year, a remarkable accomplishment. He proved to be a talented photographer with a sophisticated sense of composition. The scenes in this volume sweep across sites of Sultanate, Rajput, and Mughal power in northern India, from the sacred Hindu city of Varanasi on the Ganges River to Alwar in Rajasthan. Also included are several scenes of industry and portraits of Indian rulers.
Louis Rousselet described himself as a “scientific traveler” when he went to India alone at age 18 in 1863 and stayed into 1868.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Louis-Théophile Marie Rousselet (1845–1929) was a French artist.
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