John Schwatchke painting large

Large John Schwatchke painting, Portrait of HH The Maharaja Duleep Singh. Painting is 70cm (w) x 100 cm (H). (including the frame)
Excellent and expensive frame.

Maharaja Duleep Singh was the last Sikh Maharaja of the Punjab and former owner of the famous Koh-i-Noor diamond, which was surrendered to the British and later added to the Crown Jewels.
For much of his life, Duleep Singh had a complicated relationship with Queen Victoria – at times affectionate, at others turbulent. On the one hand, the British East India Company had taken possession of his ancestral lands, and on the other she was godmother to several of his children.

This painting is from Le Musee Schwatschke.
Le Musée Schwatschke was established 1975 in Provence to exhibit some 200 paintings by John SCHWATSCHKE (b. Dublin 1943), when he had his studio in Mougins (neighbour of Picasso) 1970-76, renting a studio from French singer Serge Reggianni.
The project, which was to be a cultural centre to exhibit the artist work and hold concerts, in Valbonne, was privately encouraged by Prof. J. Lantheman (Biographer, Modigliani) Peter Wilson (Sotheby) and Iris Clert (Galerie Clert, Paris).

While the Venture was approved by the Mayor and town Council of Valbonne, it was during the establishment of the EEC, and eventually did not get the approval of the Minister of French Museums at the Louvre.

The Artist was then persuaded by C.J.Haughey (Min of Finance) to establish the project in Ireland for tax reasons, and so it was built as a private art museum near the artist’s home “The Chestnuts” on Leighlin Rd, Carlow, and opened by the Austrian Ambassador Dr. J. Nestor with Suzanne McDougald, Dublin gallery owner. (Closed 1994).