General Sir David Baird Discovering the Body of the Sultaun Tippoo Sahib

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.