Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1973.1.22
Gallery Label:
The Irish-born Thomas Hickey worked as a portrait painter in Dublin, Rome, and Bath before moving to India in 1784. Competition from Johan Zoffany harmed his business, and he left India in 1791. He was soon traveling to China but returned to India in 1798 at a time when the East India Company was concluding its campaigns against Tipu, the French-backed Sultan of Mysore, to assert its complete control over the subcontinent. Purniya, a Brahmin, was Tipu’s most trusted minister. After Tipu was killed and his kingdom conquered in 1799, the British appointed Purniya the first Dewan (effectively the Regent) of Mysore while the puppet raja they had installed, Krishnaraja Wadiyar III, was in his minority. Hickey represents Purniya as an administrator in Persian dress but in a western interior of classical pilasters and with a statuette representing Lady Justice on a pedestal beyond. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016