A Standard-Bearer of Jaipur

Mortimer Menpes, a well-known Australian-born British artist and illustrator attended the durbar in 1903. He not only painted scenes from the state entry procession but also portraits of the retainers, standard bearers, horsemen and elephant riders who took part in it. His daughter Dorothy wrote: ‘State after State passed by, each one more bizarre and picturesque than the last. There were monstrous elephants hung with jewels; flaming banners; mail-clad horsemen; crimson velvet and cloth of gold; masses of precious metal; glittering fringes and tassels. It was almost too brilliant, too bright, too strange. One's brain could not take it all in.’