The Princess Indira

Thornton Oakley’s brush with Princess Indira Raje of Baroda, India, aboard the S.S. Egypt in December of 1910 is forever commemorated in this quick drawing he made. With just a few lines and very limited color palette, Oakley recorded the eighteen-year-old’s likeness. Within a year of this portrait, Indira broke off her engagement—arranged by her parents for political reasons—and married another for love. Eventually she ruled the Indian state of Cooch Behar as regent for her son and became a role model for generations as a modern, educated Indian woman.