Rajasthan, North-Western India, 19th and 20th century

Opaque pigments heightened with gold on paper, the vertical compositions depicting three different Indian rulers riding their steeds, two accompanied by attendants, the third on his own, two portraits with attribution inscriptions in Devanagari script at the top, one inscription hardly legible but likely to be of a Jodhpur ruler, the latter of Amar Singh II, ruler of Mewar in 1698 - 1710.

These paintings were once part of a private collection of Islamic & Indian Paintings from Anthony Dexter. Dexter is an English Private Collector of Oriental arts and successful interior designer who has been prolific collector for the last thirty years.  His collection celebrates the mesmerising variety of the pictorial arts of India across a variety of regions, centuries, and medias. Dexter said of his collection, “I simply bought what I fancied and remained just a one-man-band with a liking for the unusual”. This passion for the unconventional, whimsical, and unusual ignited his collection and career since the start, when at the age of 18 he began running an antiques and second-hand shop in Leicester, England. Shortly after, he bought his very first Ushak carpet from a Polish dealer for the princely sum of £25.00. For the last 30 years, to say it in his own words, “this world of [Islamic and Indian] art has been an entire lifetime’s trip”. It is with great pleasure that we offer his collection to the next generation of ‘art custodians’.