Professor Butter Beard and the “Maharaja Bakhat Singh”
“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in--what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.”
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
I want to join the Maharaja Bakhat Singh for late-afternoon tea in his garden. Let’s take for granted that I have figured a way to teleport back to 1735 and have landed in the Imperial Court of the current Maharaja with my completely inappropriate Panama hat, linen suit, a very gay lace parasol and my grandmother’s over-packed picnic basket. I gracefully enter the sculpted private garden, following the path of the geometrically designed raised beds while listening to the dance of the elaborate water fountains, the occasional screech of the strutting peacocks and the trumpeting of a few friendly elephants. My senses are overwhelmed with the scent of marigolds, hibiscus, roses and climbing jasmine. I do my best to smile while trying not to notice Nellie bouncing through a bed of dahlias like a mini water buffalo, thoroughly crushing them as she laughs and hunts for lion cubs. And all I can say to the Maharaja is:
“Can your barber shave me some fabulous sideburns like yours and can I try on your glamourous emerald turban?”
And then I return to 2024 on the daybreak train from New Jersey heading toward the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its current exhibition of Howard Hodgkin’s collection of Indian Court Painting.
“Indian court painting has always attracted discerning connoisseurs, including artists from diverse global traditions,” writes Max Hollein, CEO of the Metropolitan Museum. The British painter Howard Hodgkin (1932-2017) curated an extraordinary collection of 122 Indian paintings over a sixty-year period, 84 of which have been acquired by the Met. Hollein continues, “As Hodgkin’s own artistic output continued alongside his collecting, his life was interwoven with his experiences of India and relationships with scholars, painters and collectors in the field of Indian art.”
Hodgkin first visited India in 1964 after completing his art history studies at Eton under Wilfrid Blunt (the brother of the eminent art historian and infamous Soviet spy Anthony Blunt). India quickly became a necessary part of Hodgkin’s life. John Guy, the Metropolitan Museum Curator of Arts of South and Southeast Asia writes, “he returned there annually like a migratory bird needing to feed from its cacophony of sound and color.” Hodgkin’s ultimate collection is distinguished by its strict adherence to a highly personal colleting criteria: quality over condition, and radiant beauty over typology. Hodgkin wrote, “I never bought paintings or drawings on the tempting but distracting basis of their topography, their school of art, their theme, period or style. I just wanted great art.”
Rajput and Pahari court paintings from the 17th and 18th centuries make up two-thirds of Hodgkin’s collection. These paintings and drawings embody within them the imagery evoking the blazing sunlight and deep shadows of India, as well as its intense heat, ever-present dust and lush vegetation. Portraiture became a favorite genre of the Rajput artists and their patrons. “The Rajputs were quick to make the profile portrait their own,” writes Guy. “They not only scaled it up into large paintings but also transposed it into depictions that celebrated their marital prowess, bravery, and chivalry – their veritable code of honor.”
Royal portraits were routinely used as diplomatic gifts between courts, which is likely the purpose of the portrait of Maharaja Bakhat Singh. This portrait, considered to be one of the finest from eighteenth-century Rajasthan, was painted at Nagaur Fort in the kingdom of Marwar. Bakhat Singh (1706–1752), younger brother of Marwar’s ruler, was appointed governor of the fort, within which he constructed a personal pleasure palace decorated exquisitely with sophisticated floral designs and elaborately sensual gardens. Widely known as an accomplished poet and patron of the arts, the Maharaja helped foster a culture of painting and poetry at the fort that flourished for over twenty years.
He is seen here poised at an audience window (jharoka), resting one hand on the carpeted windowsill and holding in the other a fragrant purple rose, the quintessential pose for a connoisseur. His powerful profile is perfectly adorned with an emerald green turban, a sumptuous gold-embroidered white silk upper garment (angrakha) and a plethora of pearls.
The Maharajas were also often painted taking pleasure in their lush private gardens offering them a temporary respite from troubling affairs of state. The palace and gardens were shown in a serial perspective, possibly inspired by ancient Egyptian artists who prized completeness over a realistic viewpoint. Guy writes, “Paintings such as this signal a retreat into private moments devoted to aesthetic enjoyment, and so celebrate – and record – the patron’s refined connoisseurship.”
It is here in this magnificent garden that Nellie and I arrive ready to share afternoon tea with the Maharaja and his Imperial court. My picnic basket is packed with dozens of home-baked Vanilla Bean Macarons filled with a Raspberry Rose Ganache inspired by the scents and colors of 18th century India. If we can move past the crushed dahlias and traumatized cubs, I am sure the early evening will be a royal success since all we really require is “a few flowers at our feet and above us the stars.”
Vanilla Bean Macarons with Raspberry Rose Ganache
80 cookies (40 finished macarons)
Recipe adapted from Kathryn Gordon and Anne E. McBride
Cookies:
250 grams almond flour
250 grams confectionery sugar
¼ tsp fine sea salt
175 grams egg whites (about ¾ cup)
¾ tsp cream of tartar
225 grams granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
2 tsp vanilla paste
Raspberry Rose Ganache:
11 ounces white chocolate (one bag)
1 cup heavy cream
2 Tbsp light corn syrup
2 Tbsp raspberry powder
1 tsp rose flower water
1) Make the ganache: In a medium saucepan, bring the heavy cream and light corn syrup to a soft boil. Place the white chocolate chips in a medium size glass bowl. Remove the cream from the heat and whisk in the raspberry powder. Pour the hot raspberry cream over the white chocolate and let sit for 3-5 minutes to melt. Whisk until smooth and then whisk in the rose flower water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 2-3 hours.
2) Make the cookies: Place the almond flour, confectionary sugar and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse 4 or 5 times to combine. Empty the contents into a large mixing bowl.
3) In a medium saucepan, stir together the granulated sugar and water. Cook over medium-high heat until the syrup reaches 235 degrees.
4) Pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees and line three sheet pans with parchment or silicon macaron pads.
5) While the syrup comes up to temperature, in the bowl of a standing mixer, whisk the egg white and cream of tartar on medium speed until soft peaks form – about two minutes. Do not overbeat! Once the syrup reaches 235 degrees, steadily pour the syrup down the sides of the mixing bowl with the mixer running at medium speed. Once all the syrup has been added, continue whisking until soft peaks of glossy meringue forms – about another 4-5 minutes. Reduce the mixer to low and add the vanilla paste.
6) Lightly fold the finished meringue into the almond dry mix until smooth and glossy. Using a macaron guide, pipe the cookies into 1 ½” rounds (about 27-28 rounds per sheet pan). Bake one tray at a time. Bake at 200 degrees for 15 minutes, then increase the heat to 350 degrees and bake for another 9 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. (Your oven may not reach 350 for a few minutes. That is good. The slower heat increase allows the cookies to rise and not over-brown).
7) Remove the first pan and let cool completely on a wire rack. Let the oven reduce its heat to 200 degrees and bake the second pan in the same manner.
8) When the cookies have completely cooled. Pipe about 1 Tbsp of ganache on the flat side of one cookie and sandwich with another.
