The second edition of Twelve Views of Places in the Kingdom of Mysore (published in 1805), a collection of drawings and paintings by Robert Hyde Colebrook, says the following about this work: ‘Sewan-Droog is one of the most stupendous rocks in the country, and as a fort has been generally deemed impregnable. It lies 19 miles from Bangalore, in a direct line, bearing S. 82˚. W. This place is surrounded on all sides by extensive woods and thickets, inhabited by tigers and other wild beasts. Several rills of clear water issue from the foot of the rock, and discharge themselves into a small river in the vicinity. Tanks or reservoirs have been constructed on the hill itself, some of which have been hewn out of the solid rock.’

Painted four decades after the event, Wilkie’s version of the finding of Tipu’s body was created to reinforce the crucial role played by Sir David Baird, at the insistence of his widow. Baird is shown standing on a step at the entrance, raising one hand to command attention while the other, holding his sword, points to Tipu’s limp body, laid out below. Tipu’s body is curiously shapeless below the waist, as though he had literally been deflated. But the most telling detail here is the grilled window beneath Baird’s feet, a reminder to the audience that Baird had been held prisoner at Srirangapatna for four years by Haider Ali after the Battle of Pollilur.

To depict the family lamenting over Tipu’s corpse, Henry Singleton returned to a more neoclassical composition and mood. Once safely dead, Tipu could be associated pictorially with the heroes of classical antiquity affording some dignity, being shown as a man who deserves to be mourned. The body, laid out on a couch, is surrounded by wailing women and children, whose hysterical gestures raise futile protests against the event, even as the stillness and solemnity of serious-minded men confirm it as certain.

Brown depicted a scene which had never even been described, though it might have been supposed to have happened, and would certainly appeal to the sentiment of the British public, namely The Departure of the Sons of Tippoo from the Zenana. Such a focus on the women of the story was an exception rather than the norm, and this view is very unrealistic, not least because the women of the court would never be exposed to the gaze of mahouts. But the artist was keen to play up the emotional aspects; specifically here, maternal affection and alarm.

Porter turned the storming of Srirangapatna from something that a British audience could read about in a newspaper, to an event they felt they could witness. He successfully brought the event to the streets of London while himself relying on accounts of the attack written by two officers who had taken part, the surveyor Captain Alexander Allan who was the official cartographer of the campaign, and Captain Alexander Beatson, its official historian. The original painting from which this print was made measured over 120 feet long.One contemporary observer described it as ‘all fire, intelligence and animation’. The print remains the best known depiction of the fall of Srirangapatna.

This image depicts a gold and rock crystal model tiger head, paws and claws, with banners and a standard of Tipu Sultan’s mounted army as a trophy on a base that is inscribed: ‘This Trophy was taken/At the Storming of Seringapatam/4th May 1799/Richard Earl of Mornington/Then Governor General of India’. Originally part of a footstool for Tipu’s throne, the tiger head was plundered after the siege and is now in the Royal collection in Britain.

Sir Alexander Allan served in the Madras Infantry throughout the period of the Mysore Wars, and played a part in the surrender of Tipu’s family after the fall of Srirangapatna. A talented draughtsman, he drew and later published a series of views of the fields of battle. Here he shows British officers occupying Tipu’s palace after the capture of Bangalore in 1791 (see also cat. nos 27, 60 and 61).

Recognizably derived from known earlier portraits of Tipu Sultan, this work from the mid-nineteenth century shows his enduring popularity and appeal among people in South India.

Painted four decades after the event, Wilkie’s version of the finding of Tipu’s body was created to reinforce the crucial role played by Sir David Baird, at the insistence of his widow. Baird is shown standing on a step at the entrance, raising one hand to command attention while the other, holding his sword, points to Tipu’s limp body, laid out below. Tipu’s body is curiously shapeless below the waist, as though he had literally been deflated. But the most telling detail here is the grilled window beneath Baird’s feet, a reminder to the audience that Baird had been held prisoner at Srirangapatna for four years by Haider Ali after the Battle of Pollilur.