Air-India/London
Artist
K. K. Save
Printer
Prasad Process Madras
Date1962
MediumOffset Lithograph
Dimensions39 3/4 x 24 1/2 in. (101 x 62.2 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LinePoster House Permanent Collection
Object numberPH.7773
DescriptionThis poster depicts London’s National Gallery—home to Francisco de Goya’s famous portrait of the Duke of Wellington that was stolen the year prior and not returned to the museum until 1965. Humorously, however, it is not this portrait that the art thief covets, but the portrait of Air-India’s very own Maharaja. In reference to this poster, Jal B. Cowasji jested that “the Duke of Wellington was ready to ride to war again when he discovered that the Maharaja was preferred to him.” As with many of the Maharaja’s appearances, this composition relates to that of another poster produced the same year. Replicated in the calendar to the right, this image depicts the Mona Lisa painting a portrait of the Maharaja, making essentially the same joke. Rather than inserting the Maharaja into a known artwork, the Air-India studio presented the Maharaja as a masterpiece in and of himself—when confronted with these two famous artworks, the Maharaja emerges as the true treasure.On View
Not on view
