William Dalrymple
William Dalrymple is one of Britain’s greatest historians and the author of the classic In Xanadu, the Wolfson Prize-winning White Mughals and the Hemingway Prize-winning Return of a King.
A master of micro-histories, William Dalrymple has turned his hand for the first time to macro-history in The Anarchy. A frequent broadcaster, he has written and presented three television series, one of which won the Grierson Award for Best Documentary Series at BAFTA in 2002. In 2018, he was presented with the prestigious President’s Medal by The British Academy for his outstanding literary achievement and for founding the Jaipur Literature Festival. William Dalrymple was Historical Advisor to the major new ITV period drama, Beecham House, about the East India Company that aired last summer.
He also curated an exhibition for the Wallace Collection, Forgotten Masters, the first UK exhibition of Indian paintings commissioned by East India Company officials in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
William lives with his wife, three children and his beloved flock of goats on a farm outside Delhi.
JOHN ESKENAZI
Head of Maitreya with an aureole, flanked by two vidyadhara, Gandhara, probably Peshawar Valley, northern Pakistan, early 4th century, grey schist, height 38.1cm.
My Selection
Rob Dean Art
An illustration to the Shangri Ramayana
Kulu or Mandi, India
Opaque pigment on paper
Circa 1700 – 1710
Christie’s
A Qajar dancing girl, Iran
Circa 1840
60.1/4 x 33in. (152.5 x 84cm.)
Francesca Galloway
Maru sets out armed and determined to recover his beloved, Maru raga, first son of Malkaus,
From a dispersed Ragamala series,
North Deccan,
1630-50
Rita Dixit Indian Miniatures
Asavari Ragini: A Painted Melody
Murshidabad, Bengal, India
c. 1780
Opaque pigments with gold on paper
29cm by 22.2cm (folio)
John Eskenazi Ltd.
Head of Maitreya with an aureole, flanked by two vidyadhara,
Gandhara, probably Peshawar Valley,
northern Pakistan, early 4th century,
grey schist,
height 38.1cm.
