Painting

and the darker colour palette that dominated his Devgarh compositions appears to have been assimilated into his later works. The recorded date and strong attribution to the artist suggests that Chokha had already reappeared at the Udaipur court around 1817, the year before Maharana Bhim Singh of Udaipur accepted British protection through the mediation of Tod. Another portrait in the V&A's collection of the influential Tod (IPN.2489) is most likely a contemporary copy of this work and painted by a more pedestrian Udaipur-trained artist. The inscription along the top border of this composition also includes a reference to Rawat Gokul Das, reaffirming that these two works, while most likely created at Udaipur, were both for Devgarh patronage.