My collaborator Rajesh Soni has long spoke of the work of his grandfather, Prabhu Lal Verma (Verma being a variant of the family name Soni). Prabhu Lal worked as an artist and photographer, and spent much of his time hand-colouring photographs for the late Maharajah Bophal Singh of Mewar in Udaipur.
The image above (dated 1956) was not a royal commission, but a portrait of a man who was probably a wealthy tradesman or merchant. In the upper right is a printed card of a Jain saint, and in the lower left some sort of attached bauble. As was often the style, the photograph itself is so heavily coated with pigment that it almost ceases to be a photograph. Rather, it seems to morph into an oil painting.
Much of Rajesh's grandfather's work is held in the archives of Udaipur's City Palace Museum (though very little is currently actually on display). The image above is from the Soni family's personal collection.
