The young, Oxford-educated Maharaja of Indore, Yeshwant Rao Holkar III, was a patron of early Modernist design, surrounding himself with the aesthetic and philosophy of the 1930s avant-garde. In Paris, he and his wife wore the most fashionable Western clothes, maintained an enviable stable of racehorses, and bought a fleet of exotic cars. An elegant aesthete, the Maharaja came to the studio attired in formal evening wear, where Man Ray captured his easy but elegant pose, with an unlit cigarette between his delicate fingers and with a discreet smile.