7096

Commanding General Keshar Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana 1935

Seated half-length, full-face, wearing plumed helmet and full ceremonial uniform with many decorations, holding his sword in his left (gloved) hand and his other glove in his right hand

Oil on canvas, 86.4 x 122 cm (34 x 48 in.)

Indistinctly inscribed lower left: de László / 1935 

Laib L1943 (606) / C30 (10) [as first painted] inscribed: Sir Kaiser Rama 'For Kenneth Cooper Keymer'

The Kaiser Mahal Library, Kathmandu

As early as 1919, de László was approached by Kaiser Rana, through the agency of D. T. Keymer, asking to have his portrait painted.^[1] Kaiser was a distinguished connoisseur of the arts and, as a great admirer of de László,^[2] he was very keen to have his full-length portrait painted by him. He originally suggested being depicted hunting in the jungle, or with the Nepali helmet on.^[3] De László rejected his first proposal, but accepted the commission,^[4] even though it required painting his sitter from photographs. Kaiser later proposed to be painted with his Ranee, which idea de László welcomed, while pointing out that his honorarium for a double portrait would be 2,000 guineas,^[5] at the time the highest fee he would have ever commanded. However, the project was endlessly postponed: de László originally hoped to go to India, and envisaged painting the sitter from life during this trip,^[6] which was eventually cancelled; then Kaiser evoked the possibility of coming to London, in 1922, but this project did not come to fruition.^[7] Finally, in 1929, de László said that he did not want to paint the portrait from photographs after all.

However, Kaiser did not give up, and in January 1935, de László was contacted by D. T. Keymer’s son, Kenneth Keymer, and was offered the same commission. De László proposed to go to India with his wife and studio assistant, under the presumption he would have other commissions there, but Kaiser discouraged him, fearing “there would be no other outlet for [his] brush,”^[8] and the artist accepted to paint his bust from photographs for 500 guineas.^[9] Krishna S.J.B. Rana, the sitter’s brother [7089], was in London at the time, and offered to sit to de László so that he could paint at least some of the painting from life. However, the sitter’s moustache proved very problematic in the execution of the present portrait. Kaiser was well known for his fine facial adornment, but having suffered from alopecia, he had shaved it off in 1933 and by 1935, was growing it back. Concerning this issue, the sitter wrote: “The question of painting the moustaches [sic] or not can easily be settled. In the former case, I need but send a copy of my photograph taken before the denudation. I think I shall leave the question for Mr. de Laszlo [sic] to decide whichever appears welcome in his eyes.”^[10] De László painted him with a moustache, and it is possible that in this respect, Krishna, who had similar facial hair, sat to de László to help him with this. This would partly explain why the likeness was not very satisfactory in the portrait in its original state, as photographed by Paul Laib in de László’s studio.

However, in 1937, Kaiser eventually came to London, where he was painted from life by de László [7090], there also exists a preparatory drawing [7092]. At this date, he brought the present portrait with him from Nepal and de László overpainted it, eliminating the moustache^[11] and likening the features more to those of Kaiser.^[12] 

The Rana family came to power in Nepal in September 1846, after the Kot Massacre. Jang Bahadur Kuncoar Rana became the first Prime Minister and the founder of the Rana regime;^[13] that marked the beginning of a one hundred and four year period of the Rana family as hereditary Prime Ministers to the Royal Family. The Ranas were great anglophiles and would have made frequent visits to London during the 1930s. Also, according to the Royal Nepalese Embassy’s records, four of Chandra Shamsher Jangbahadur Rana’s eight sons^[14] were at one time Ministers Plenipotentiary and Envoys Extraordinary to the Court of St. James in London: Krishna from 1936 until 1939, Singha from 1939 until 1947, Kaiser from 1947 until 1949 and Shankar from 1949 until 1954. The Royal Nepalese Mission to London was in fact established as a legation in 1934.

Kaiser Shamsher Jang Bahadur Rana was born in Kathmandu on 8 January 1892, the third of the eight sons^[15] of Maharaja Chandra Shumshere J.B. Rana. He was named after Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany, whom his father much admired, and was educated privately at home with his brothers by Indian tutors. It is also recorded that Kaiser attended the Durbar High School in Kathmandu. In 1908, he accompanied his father on state visit to Europe. From 1920 until 1921, he was in charge of the Shikar (hunting, in the Terai region) arrangements for the Prince of Wales. He was appointed Grand Officer of the Légion d’Honneur in 1934 and in 1937, head of the Royal Mission and of the Nepalese delegation to the Coronation of George VI. He was appointed Minister to the Court of St. James from 1947 until 1949 and after that, Nepalese Ambassador to the United States of America. Kaiser was also Commander-in-Chief, Minister of Defence and Education Minister in Nepal. His monarch was King Tribhuvan Shah Dev, born in 1906, who ruled from 1911, until his death in 1955. During the troubles in 1951, when a more democratic government was demanded, several of Kaiser’s brothers went to live in Bangalore in India, but Kaiser did not go. He understood this need to stay, and was respected both by the monarch and the people. When Tribhuvan’s son Mahendra succeeded him, and introduced Panchyat (a new democracy), Kaiser became head of the newly formed Advisory Council as its Chairman.^[16] 

He was a man of remarkable intellect, one of the foremost astrologers in Nepal, knowing both the Asian and European astrological charts. He had an unparalleled thirst for knowledge, combined with a certain pride and even arrogance in his bearing. He was very strict and ran everything he was concerned with on military lines. Very fond of hunting, he held the record for the biggest tiger ever shot in Nepal. He was the first Nepali to circumnavigate the world and became a considerable connoisseur of fine and decorative arts, commissioning many oil portraits of himself, which was extremely unusual in Nepal in his day. The de László portrait is the one that has been chosen from so many others by his widow and son to remain in their family home. It was said by those who knew him to have captured the very essence of his character. He also collected stamps, coins, curios and jewellery, both Asian and European. Above all he was a remarkable bibliophile. He collected some 26,000 books, amassing the largest private library in Asia. He had certainly read every one of them and had no need of a librarian to locate and quote references from them, as he could remember all himself. He gifted this collection of rare and valuable books and manuscripts to the country.

He married first Laxmi Rajya Laxmi Rana, sister of King Tribhuvan. Together they had a son and three daughters. They separated and it is thought that they were then divorced.^[17] Before he married again, he fathered a daughter and two more sons from three different relationships. His second wife was Krishna Chandra Devi Rana, daughter of the Raja of Bajang. She was thirty-three years his junior. They had two sons and two daughters and she was still living in the year 2001. Kaiser died in 1964 in Kathmandu, having been honoured with the G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., G.C.L.H., and D.C.I. By then he was styled His Highness Field Marshal Kaiser Shumshere Jung Bahadur Rana. His widow gave their home, the Kaiser Mahal, which already housed the collection of books and many portraits, to the city of Kathamandu.

LITERATURE:        

•László, Philip de, January-June 1935 diary, private collection, 27 January entry, p. 11; 29 January entry, p. 13-14; 28 May entry, p. 134

•László, Philip de, June-November 1935 diary, private collection, 15 June entry, p. 5; 17 June entry, p. 7; 18 June entry, p. 8; 19 June entry, p. 10-11; 21 June entry, p. 13-14; 22 June entry, p. 15; 22 June entry, p. 16 [second entry with that date]; 24 June 1935 entry, p. 19; 10 July 1935 entry, p. 39; 11 July 1935 entry, p. 40; 12 July 1935 entry, p. 42; 13 July 1935 entry, p. 43; 14 July 1935 entry, p. 44; 15 July 1935 entry, p. 44; 17 July 1935 entry, p. 46; 18 July 1935 entry, p. 48; 30 July 1935 entry, p. 66; 31 July 1935 entry, p. 68; 1 August 1935 entry, p. 69; 2 August 1935 entry, p. 71-72; 30 August 1935 entry, p. 100; 14 September 1935 entry, p. 110-111; 30 October 1935 entry, p. 143

•Hart-Davis, Duff, in collaboration with Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, De László: His Life and Art, Yale University Press, 2010, p. 263-264, ill. 136, 137

•Hart-Davis, Duff, László Fülöp élete és festészete [Philip de László's Life and Painting], Corvina, Budapest, 2019, ill. 170, 171

•DLA073-0106, letter from D.T. Keymer to de László, 12 September 1919

•DLA073-0117, letter from D.T. Keymer to de László, 30 July 1920

•DLA073-0119, letter from Keymer, Son & Co. to de László, 19 October 1922

•DLA073-0098, letter from Kenneth Keymer to de László, 25 January 1935

•DLA073-0088, letter from Kenneth Keymer to de László, 25 April 1935

•DLA073-0175, letter from de László’s secretary to Kenneth Keymer, 23 July 1937

CC 2008