ABSTRACT
In November of 1792 Mather Brown exhibited two small Indian subject paintings at the Morland Gallery in London. These presented Tipu Sultan of Mysore as a calculating and heartless tyrant and the British conquerors of his domain as messengers of peace and justice. To guide Londoners towards an interpretation of his material, the artist modelled Tipu’s pose and expression on a well-known representation of Richard III, and compared the plight of the sultan’s sons to Richard’s persecuted nephews, the Little Princes in the Tower. Brown and Daniel Orme realized that topical and dramatic Mysori subjects which represented the sultan, members of his harem and young sons as well as victorious British soldiers would appeal to a wide public. To contemporary viewers, Sultan’s surrender at Seringapatum must have seemed comparable on several levels to Wolfe’s triumph over the French outside Quebec in 1759.
