QUEEN VICTORIA'S MAHARAJAH | The many lives of Duleep Singh with Eugene Barilo von Reisberg

Fascinated by one of Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s most exotic paintings, Portrait of Maharajah Duleep Singh, Eugene Barilo von Reisberg delved into the sitter’s biography and uncovered a fascinating tale of an Indian child prince; the legend of the fabled Koh-i-Noor diamond, one of the most important jewels in the British Royal Collection; and the Indian presence at the court of Queen Victoria, the first British monarch to be formally styled the Empress of India.

EUGENE BARILO VON REISBERG is a writer, researcher, and art consultant. He is an internationally acknowledged authority on Franz Xaver Winterhalter, the 19th century elite portrait specialist, and he is currently completing a doctoral thesis on the artist at the University of Melbourne.

See also Eugene Barilo von Reisberg’s lecture series CAPTURING GLAMOUR | Society portraiture during the long 19th century, 1789-1914 below.

Franz Xaver Winterhalter (1805-1873), The Maharaja Duleep Singh (1838-93), 1854, The Royal Collection, England, RCIN 403843, Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2014