English Officers at the Summer Palace of Tippoo Sultan in Bangalore

Allan was an officer in the Madras Native Infantry from 1780 to 1804, when he resigned having reached the rank of Major in 1804 and returned home to pursue his business interests. From 1814 he was a Director of the East India Company. He took part in the Third and Fourth Mysore Wars against Tippoo Sultan and he is portrayed in Henry Singleton's painting, engraved by Cardon, of the two sons of Tippoo Sultan surrendering to General Sir David Baird in 1799. He had already published his drawings of Tippoo's capitals and of the hill forts made during the Third Mysore War of 1790-92 in his Views in the Mysore Country, London, 1794. The Daniells according to William's diary 'were favoured with a sight of his Drawings' when they reached Bangalore in April 1792. Allan was a very talented draughtsman and landscape artist, with a characteristic figural distinction, as seen in the present drawing with his tall elegant British army officers and the generally shorter and darker Indians.

Bangalore was the main administrative and military centre of the Mysore kingdom. It was captured by the British during the course of the Third Mysore War, when Lord Cornwallis was able to advance his armies up on to the Mysore plateau in 1791. It served as the base of operations for an assault on Seringapatam itself, but Tippoo sued for peace before his capital fell. The Company's forces occupied Bangalore from 1791-92 before it was returned to Tippoo under the terms of the Treaty of Seringapatam. Tippoo's summer palace was built 1781-91 to the south of the fort of Bangalore. It was named 'Rash-e-Jannat' or the 'abode of happiness and the envy of heaven'. It consisted of two storeys with double height audience chambers containing immense supporting columns to the front and back and gardens on either side. Various views of it were taken by Lieutenant James Hunter in 1791-92 and published in his posthumous Picturesque Scenery in the Kingdom of Mysore, London, 1805.