Portrait of an unnamed Ghilji man
Date
1815
Creator
Unknown, Engraver
After
Unknown Deli artist (Indian) , Artist
Object type
Library reference
RCN38165
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 280mm
width (print): 210mm
width (print): 210mm
Subject
Politics & Government
> Political doctrines
> British Empire
Politics & Government
> Political doctrines
> British colonialism
> Political doctrines
> British Empire
Politics & Government
> Political doctrines
> British colonialism
Content object
Description
Portrait of a man of the Ghilji (or Ghilzai) tribal confederacy of Afghanistan, shown seated and in summer costume. The subject is shown in white clothing with a blue shawl over his shoulders and a white turban.
Plate 9 from Mountstuart Elphinstone's An account of the Kingdom of Caubul and its dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India… (London, 1815), an account of his embassy to the ruler of Afghanistan, Shuja Shah Durrani Khan (1785-1842) in 1808.
Inscribed “PL. IX. A Khawtee Ghiljie in his Summer Dress. Published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, Paternoster Row, 1815,”
According to the accompanying text, ‘the generality wear the Indian dress of white cotton…Their dress is also distinguished from that of the tribes farther west, by the use of white turbans which they wear in the manner represented in Plate IX…
An original watercolour of 1808-1810, now in the British Library, shows this subject with the background detail of an interior, the sitter on a red patterned carpet.
Mountstuart Elphinstone (1779–1859), East India Company administrator from 1776, known for his periods as Resident at Poona and Governor of Bombay in the 1810s and 1820s, and involvement in the Anglo-Maratha wars.
Plate 9 from Mountstuart Elphinstone's An account of the Kingdom of Caubul and its dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India… (London, 1815), an account of his embassy to the ruler of Afghanistan, Shuja Shah Durrani Khan (1785-1842) in 1808.
Inscribed “PL. IX. A Khawtee Ghiljie in his Summer Dress. Published by Messrs. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, & Brown, Paternoster Row, 1815,”
According to the accompanying text, ‘the generality wear the Indian dress of white cotton…Their dress is also distinguished from that of the tribes farther west, by the use of white turbans which they wear in the manner represented in Plate IX…
An original watercolour of 1808-1810, now in the British Library, shows this subject with the background detail of an interior, the sitter on a red patterned carpet.
Mountstuart Elphinstone (1779–1859), East India Company administrator from 1776, known for his periods as Resident at Poona and Governor of Bombay in the 1810s and 1820s, and involvement in the Anglo-Maratha wars.
Associated place