UNKNOWN PERSON
Queen Victoria is presented with a book
c. 1884-90RCIN 2907350
Painted photographs were particularly popular in nineteenthcentury India, where monochrome imagery was uncommon. For this composite image, an artist working for Prahbu Narayan Singh, Maharaja of Benares (r. 1889 –1931), used the same photograph of Queen Victoria as in the frontispiece of the book presented to her by his predecessor a decade earlier (right). The maharaja also stands in the same pose presenting an album of photographs.