56cm (22in) x 43cm (17in)
Watercolour, pencil and pen and ink on paper. Portrait of the Governor-General’s Bodyguard Dafedar Laxman Nalkrishna Patkar / age 30 years / Native Place Ratnagiri / Serving for 5 years in the / Governor of Bombay’s Body Guards.’ Signed and dated lower right ‘J.D. Gonhalekar / 4th Sept 1944’. Framed and glazed.
The Bombay Governor's Bodyguard was formed at Poona (now Pune) in 1865 from part of the 1st South Mahratta Horse. Under the re-organizations of 1895 and 1938 its composition was restructured to include Punjabi Muslims, Deccani Muslims and Sikhs. The GBG of Bombay Presidency was disbanded at Indian Independence in 1947. Like its counterparts of the Governor of Madras's Bodyguard and the Governor General's Bodyguard, the Bombay force was an Indian equivalent of Britain's Household Cavalry.
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Janardhan Dattareya Gondhalekar (1909-1981) trained at the Sir J. J. School of Art in Mumbai, The Slade School of Fine Art, London and at the Academie Julian, Paris. He also studied conservation at the Laboratoria Centrale des Musees, Belguim under a UNESCO Fellowship in 1950. His successful combination of European and Indian themes won him an international audience and wide acclaim as a cultural visionary. As the art director of the Times of India he wrote and broadcast widely. He was Dean of the Sir J.J. School of Art in Mumbai and a film industry art director.