The Last Sikh Maharajah and Victorian Representations of the Exotic

At a glance, Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s Portrait of Maharaja Duleep Singh (1854) betrays none of the political controversy and personal tragedy surrounding the last maharajah of the Sikh Empire. Winterhalter worked at the behest of Queen Victoria to create a romanticised image of a maharajah in traditional dress, against a mythical backdrop. In reality, following the fall of the Sikh empire after the Second Anglo-Sikh War, Duleep Singh was stripped of his identity, controversially converting to Christianity and the Koh-i-Noor taken from him. This paradoxical image is symptomatic of its time. An Indian nobleman encapsulated the mysterious, colonial subjects of the British Empire, a sort of spectacle, gratifying the insatiable Victorian desire for the exotic. This kind of fetishism masked a cavalier disregard for the individual’s history. More recently, the work The Casualty of War (2013) by contemporary British artists The Singh Twins reimagines Duleep Singh as the rightful heir of the Sikh empire. The painting contains symbolism evoking his European life, including one of himself in a three-piece suit and of Paris, the place of his death. Dominating the painting is the maharajah in traditional costume, shown wearing the Koh-i-Noor, against the backdrop of his native land. The painting is empowering: his treasures and legacy are restored to him and his dual identity reconciled. The disparity between Winterhalter’s portrayal and the true circumstances that led Duleep Singh to Britain is perhaps best summed up by Queen Victoria herself, “I always feel so much for these poor deposed Indian Princes!” 1

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