Maharaja Jai Singh of Alwar as a child

Before the Age of Profile Pictures: Indian Portraiture

A portrait, typically an image of an individual showing a likeness, conveys information about who they are, or perhaps, how they want to be seen. Portraits combine aspects of the “real” and the observed with the idealized and the imaginary, to make for powerful messages about one’s identity and self-image.

Before the twentieth century, portraits in India were mainly of kings, politicians, or important teachers—people whose skills, achievements, or contributions were considered worthy of memorializing. It was a high privilege to have one’s portrait made as it required resources to acquire the artistic talent and expensive materials. Numerous portraits of Indian rulers and noblemen survive from after the 1700s. They were included in dynastic or family histories, exchanged as personal and diplomatic gifts, and seen in public and private settings. Through an artist’s eye—and conveyed by clothing, accessories, and settings— portraits emphasized an individual’s character, abilities, status, and role in society.

Today, with the easy access to smart phones and social media, portraits as selfies and profile pictures proliferate in ways not seen before. They have become democratized in many respects, as each person can independently control the message and circulate it widely and quickly without the mediation of an artist’s interpretation. Yet, like the paintings on view here, ideas about who we are and what we want others to see about us remain key features of the art of the selfie., Photography was adopted in India, including the Rajasthani kingdoms of Alwar and Jaipur, not long after its invention in Europe in 1839. In its early days, photography was considered a “documentary” medium—and therefore, truer to life—in comparison with the “artifice” of painting, even though both have the potential to be subjective and selective representations of reality. Compared with the painted portraits nearby, this photograph’s naturalism establishes an immediate connection between the young Jai Singh and the viewer. But before color photography, paintings could offer information about the sitter that a black-and-white photograph could not, such as details of clothing, accessories, and setting; focus attention on chosen features; adjust scale and perspective for impact, etc. This painted photograph of the maharaja combines the advantages of painting and photography to create a realistic yet, at the same time, idealized portrait.