A RETAINER FROM CUTCH
signed Mortimer Menpes lower left
oil on panel
41.5 x 32.5cm; 16 1/4 x 12 3/4in
unframed

Property from a Private Collector, Jersey, The Channel Islands

Provenance
Acquired by the present owner in 2000

Literature
Mortimer Menpes, The Durbar (text by Dorothy Menpes), London, 1903, pl. 32, illustrated in colour

Painted in 1903 during Menpes' travels in India at the time of the Delhi Durbar - the celebration of King George VII and Queen Alexandra as Emperor and Empress of India between 29th December 1902 and the 10th January 1903.

During the Durbar Menpes was especially captivated by the regional costumes of royal retainers, the Indian tribesmen loyal to the British monarch. He featured some twenty illustrations of retainers and their massed processions in his book Durbar, with chapter five devoted to the Procession of Retainers. Writing of the spectacle he noted (in Dorothy's words) that 'One broad sweep of changing, glittering colour was stretched out before us for mile upon mile, formed of clumps of retainers from the tribes of India. There were tribes from Cashmere, from the highlands and the lowlands, camels, elephants, men in armour, animals in armour, and costumes of every conceivable colour and form.' (Menpes, 1903, p. 71).

Menpes had first visited India in 1890. For the Durbar he was the guest of the Viceroy, Lord Curzon, and recorded and reported on the ceremonies and festivities for the Pall Mall Gazette, The Illustrated London News and Punch magazine.