The Delhi Durbar of 1903 was a glorious celebration to proclaim the accession of Edward VII to the Imperial Throne of India. The Durbar was organised by Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India, and was a magnificent festival with everything organised on a gigantic scale. Over the ten days of festivities all the Indian princes of rank came to the old Mogul capital to honour the new sovereign, each bringing large processions of people and animals both as an indication of their position in society and as an honour to the new King.

Mortimer Menpes, who at the time was the most widely selling artist in the world, attended the Durbar in the company of his daughter. While Menpes painted the wonderful scenes of the Durbar his daughter recorded the amazing sights of the festivities which resulted in a book that was published in London soon after.

In June 1903 Menpes also exhibited the pictures he had painted of the Durbar at the prestigious London art gallery of Messrs Dowdeswell and Dowdeswell in New Bond Street, where they were very favourably received. The evocative oil painting A Hawksman of Rajgarh was catalogue number 25 in the exhibition. Menpes painted the falconer with a bird perched on one of his leather-gloved hands and the composition is an historically important representations of the Rajgarh peoples dress and presentation of the period. What Menpes describes as “the splendid type” (The Durbar, 1903, p.171) of the falconer, and the obvious importance that the subject holds in his position, can clearly be felt due to the exquisite rendering of the portrait.

A Hawksman of Rajgarh is a rare example of one of Menpes larger exhibited and published works that is presented in beautiful condition in its original ebonised frame.

About the artist: Adelaide-born artist Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1855-1938) finished his art training in London in 1880. Initially he gained recognition as a student of James Whistler, and later became one of the most popular and widely exhibited artists of his generation. Menpes was a voracious traveller, raconteur and an innovative and entrepreneurial printmaker and print publisher.