Kapur Singh (artist)
Kapur Singh (fl. 1860–1890), also known as Kapur Singh of Amritsar or Kapur Singh of Kapurthala, was a famous Sikh artist. He worked in watercolors, oils, murals, and on paper. He was the son of Kishan Singh and the nephew of Bishan Singh, and his son Sardul Singh became a respected painter and photographer in Amritsar around 1900.
Kapur Singh was one of the best-known Sikh painters of the 19th century. He mainly used watercolors to create many small, detailed scenes of everyday life in Punjab, showing workers and different crafts. While in Kapurthala, he studied European painters and learned oil painting techniques. He then combined oil and watercolor, becoming skilled in the Western oil style, and he also produced miniatures.
He is noted as the only late-19th-century Sikh artist who successfully moved into Western-style oil painting. Much of his surviving work has English inscriptions. His realistic pictures show careful detail from his miniaturist background, though they did not push as much innovation as his father and uncle.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 07:14 (CET).