Edwin Lord Weeks (American, 1849-1903) The Arrival of Prince Humbert, the Rajah, at the Palace of Amber signed 'E.L. Weeks' (and stamped with the artist's Moghul device, lower left) oil on canvas 99.1 x 132.1cm (39 x 52in). Painted circa 1888 Footnotes: PROPERTY FROM A DISTINGUISHED AMERICAN COLLECTION Provenance Durand Ruel, Paris. M. Knoedler & Co., Inc., New York. John J. Hill. Mary H. Hill; Her estate sale, Parke-Bernet Galleries Inc., New York, 20 November 1947, lot 97, as Arrival of the Great Mogul. M Boccolino Collection (acquired from the above sale). Anon. sale, Sotheby's, New York, 7 May 1998, lot 21. Acquired from the above by the present owner. Literature George William Sheldon, Recent Ideals of American Art, New York, London, 1888-90, p. 60 (illustrated p. 57). Edwin Lord Weeks, From the Black Sea Through Persia and India, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1895, with related description pp. 240-46 (related illustration p. 245, related illustration of elephant head p. 243). Ulrich W. Hiesinger, Edwin Lord Weeks: Visions of India, New York, 2002, pp. 36-37 (illustrated p. 87). Ulrich W. Hiesinger, 'Edwin Lord Weeks, painter and explorer', The Magazine Antigues, CLXII:5, November 2002, pp. 166-175 (illustrated p. 172). This fine, scenographic painting was executed circa 1888, at the height of Weeks Indian period. The period between Weeks' second expedition to India (1887) and his third and last expedition (1892-1893) was especially important for Weeks in developing and executing a number of major paintings, not least the present work. The Arrival of Prince Humbert is, as George Sheldon put it at the time, 'a characteristic study of east Indian architecture and the regal life of Asia' (Sheldon, p. 60). Its pictorial theme of a royal figure dismounting from an elephant was one which Weeks explored on a number of occasions, perhaps most famously in A Rajah of Jodhpore, completed a year after The Arrival of Prince Humbert, and purchased by Kaiser Wilhelm at its 1891 exhibition in Berlin. As recorded in his travel journals, Weeks was impressed by the palace of Amber. Amber (now Amer) served as the capital of Rajahstan until 1728, when it was officially abandoned in favour of the more modern city of Jaipur. As Weeks noted, however, it was 'still occupied from time to time as a royal residence,' and he described a scene similar to the present composition in his expedition narrative: 'The great gateway of the palace, elaborately painted in conventional designs, relieved by white marble and plaques of alabaster inlaid with symbolic figures in enamel and gold, and lightened by panels and transparent screens of red stone, showing the blue of the sky behind, has the rich tone of a faded cashmere shawl. As we stand in front of it an open, many-pillared hall rises on our left, with heavy sculptured brackets adorning the capitals. This entire edifice is covered with white chunar... Amber, with its garden courts... its secluded chambers and halls adorned with gilding and Persian mirror-work, or with panels of white marble on which are sculptured the rose and the lotus, the doors of sandal wood and ivory...seems a perfect parallel to the Alhambra, and completely embodies the Arabian idea of a kingly retreat.' (Weeks, From the Black Sea Through Persia and India, pp. 242-46). In the present work, Prince Humbert is seen descending a stair from the crouching elephant, as an attendant shields him from the sun with a parasol. Seated in the howdah of the standing elephant are three women, presumably the rajah's family. The rajah's various retainers frame the scene. Weeks depicts the figures in full court costume, one in dazzling blue silk dotted in pink, still others in embroidered garments, which like the elephants raiment's, are rendered in Weeks characteristic painterly style. As is typical of Weeks' compositions, the entire scene is carefully constructed using architectural elements and the ground plane to organize the disparate pictorial elements. Weeks' characteristic dynamic juxtaposition of the diagonal of the cornice on the left against the diagonal implied by the elephants heads and howdah is set off by the flat, planar treatment of the palace entry to the rear. This architectonic approach to composition endows Weeks best paintings with a sense of monumentality that transcends their physical size. Equally characteristic in this painting is Weeks' mastery of rendering shade and shadow against the bright Indian sun. We are grateful to Edward S. Levin for compiling this catalogue entry. The work will be included in the forthcoming Edwin Lord Weeks catalogue raisonné from the Ellen K. Morris archives and now in preparation by Edward S. Levin. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: * * VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com