Cheetah, or Hunting Tiger

Unknown artist (Company style)

1826

Watercolor, pen and black ink, and graphite on moderately thick, moderately textured, cream wove paper

Yale Center for British Art

This drawing depicts a cheetah seized as a trophy in 1826 by Stapleton Cotton, first Viscount Combermere, from Durjan Saul, raja of Bhartatpur, after a siege. As the inscription on this drawing reveals, Stapleton Cotton, first Viscount Combermere (1773–1865) seized this cheetah from Durjan Saul, raja of Bhartatpur, in 1826. Lord Combermere had left Britain for India in 1796 when commanding the Twenty-fifth Light Dragoons. After a distinguished military career fighting in Portugal and Spainduring the Napoleonic Wars, he became commander-inchief of the British forces in India in 1825. Late that year he laid siege to the capital of the state of Bharatpur, a princely state independent of British control. Lord Combermere stormed the capital in January 1826 after a three-week siege, ousted Durj