The Maharana of Mewar making a submission to Prince Khurram; from the Jahangirnama, c1618; gouache and gilt on paper. Photograph: Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Indian art expert and museum curator whose collection and archive were donated to the Courtauld Institute

Robert Skelton, who passed away at the age of 93, was a longtime curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum's Indian section and a renowned expert in Indian painting and ornamental arts from the Sultanate and Mughal eras (13th to 19th centuries). The Persianate court arts of the Muslim kings and the indigenous Indian artistic traditions interacted extensively throughout this time.

Among Robert's accomplishments were two magnificent and well-liked exhibits, The Indian Heritage: Court Life and Arts Under Mughal Rule (1982) and Arts of Bengal: The Heritage of Bangladesh and Eastern India (1979), into which he put much of his gathered knowledge.

When Robert was appointed keeper in 1978, he planned the former, an ambitious loan exhibition targeted in part at the neighborhood Bengali populations (much before "outreach" became a term in museums). This exhibition, which included everything from early Hindu and Buddhist sculpture to pieces from the Mughal era and afterwards, was very well received at the Whitechapel Gallery and Manchester City Art Gallery (1979-80).

1982 saw the Festival of India take place in London shortly after. Robert served as a key member of its steering group and directed the V&A's presentation of the most thorough and impressive study of Mughal Indian art ever.

Robert Skelton with Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, at Art and the East India Trade, V&A, 1970. Photograph: Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Robert was outgoing and friendly by nature, and he had a large group of friends that included everyone from academics and curators to private collectors, art dealers, and auction house personnel. He was able to examine and take pictures of a lot of unique artwork because to these connections.

Robert refined many of his fresh findings and unique ideas throughout the years into a diverse body of work by fusing his extensive knowledge of his topic with a strong, intuitive intelligence and connoisseur's eye.

He wrote ground-breaking essays on the Mughal artist Farrukh Beg, the Bijapur and Murshidabad schools, and the Ni'matnama, an illustrated book of cooking instructions and aphrodisiacs assembled about 1500 for a sultan of Mandu who loved pleasure. He did this when he was still in his twenties.

A fine Orissan stone sculpture of the Jain goddess Ambika that he had discovered in an Edinburgh antiques shop, several outstanding Mughal paintings from a Harivamsa series depicting the exploits of the Hindu god Krishna, and a magnificent carved jade wine cup made for the emperor Shah Jahan are just a few of the remarkable acquisitions he was able to start for the V&A.

Shah Jahan’s carved jade wine

Ambika; 11th-century carved steatite, from a Jain temple in Orissa. Photograph: Victoria & Albert Museum, London

He wrote essays on these and other topics, and his 1970 presentation on the impact of European herbal images on Mughal flower themes received high praise. Now he was "the young magus who was to become a teacher to a whole subsequent generation of historians of Indian art," in the words of his friend and academic Simon Digby.

Robert Skelton, a bus driver's son from Stockwell, south London, and Victoria (née Wright), a fur machinist, attended Tiffin School in Kingston upon Thames until he graduated at the age of 16. Later, while doing his national service, he worked as a Royal Artillery pay clerk and as a municipal health department clerk assessing midwives' bills. He also worked as a trainee seedsman for Carter's Tested Seeds. He was a talented violinist as well, and for the most of his life, chamber music performing would be a favorite pastime. In 1954, he wed Frances Aird, another pianist.

At the age of 21, Robert sought to work at the V&A with the intention of pursuing his interests in English furniture and musical instruments. However, WG Archer, a former member of the Indian civil service and current custodian of the Indian area, quickly recognized Robert's aptitude (later Indian department). Robert quickly established himself as a rising star in Indian painting studies under the patient supervision of Archer, an expert in Pahari (Punjab Hills) court painting. Indian Miniatures from the XVth to XIXth Centuries, the title of his 1961 book for a private collection show in Venice, provided new insights into Pahari painting in particular.

Basil Robinson, the V&A's keeper of metalwork and a renowned expert in Persian art, served as another mentor to Robert at this time. Robert worked closely with Robinson on a painting show as he immersed himself in learning Persian, the official court language of Mughal India.

Robert was named assistant keeper of the Indian division in 1960, and two years later, as a Nuffield travelling fellow, he undertook his first, transformative trip to the subcontinent. Soon after, he went on another research visit with artist Howard Hodgkin, whose later work took influence from this and earlier trips to India.

Robert had an active role on the councils of the Asia House Trust, the Society for South Asian Studies, and the Royal Asiatic Society beginning in the 1970s. He unsuccessfully advocated for a proposal to turn the former St. George's hospital on Hyde Park Corner (now the Lanesborough hotel) into a national museum of Asian art that would have combined the magnificent holdings of the British Museum and V&A.

He retired from keeping in 1988, and the following year he was given the OBE. In order to accommodate his ever-expanding library and slide collection, he relocated from Twickenham to a bigger family home in south Croydon (both now at the Courtauld Institute of Art). During a protracted retirement, he founded the Indian Art Circle, served as its first president, and continued to give talks and travel. He was once asked to provide advice in Baghdad over the return of Mughal artifacts that had been taken from Kuwait during the Gulf War.

Though he was always a helpful informal mentor to other, younger authors, many of his prolific ideas never made it into publication but often appeared in their work. Robert often welcomed foreign researchers from India or the US as well as a select group of lucky local students to his house for convivial slide nights. Even after developing Alzheimer's disease more and more in recent years, he continued to welcome visitors to his "South Croydon Institute."

He is survived by Frances, their three sons Oliver, Gregory, and Nicholas, as well as three grandkids.

Indian art expert and museum curator Robert William Skelton was born on June 11th, 1929, and passed away on August 22nd, 2022.

Thanks to Andrew Topsfield at The Guardian whose reporting provided the original basis for this story.