Indian Armed with Gurkha Dagger

The painting, which reflects Delacroix' preoccupation with Indian and Persian miniatures, was exhibited in the Salon of 1831 under the title 'Un Indien armé du Gourka-kree', with the explanation: 'Les Indiens se servaient de cette arme pour couper les jarrets des chevaux, ou égorger les sentinelles avancées, en se traînant avec précaution près des camps anglais'. (The Indians used this weapon to cut the hocks of horses, or to slit the throats of advanced sentinels, by carefully dragging themselves near the English camps.) The Gurkha are a mountain people in Nepal.
A partial study in watercolour was in 1977 in the H. Brandon Collection in England. The profile of the man is found laterally reversed on a washed pen and ink drawing in the Louvre (inv. RF 9640).
After the 1831 exhibition, Delacroix is said to have made a copy for Alexandre Dumas.