COMPANY SCHOOL, INDIA, CIRCA 1815

Details

THE GATEWAY OF FATEHPUR SIKRI
COMPANY SCHOOL, INDIA, CIRCA 1815
Pencil and watercolour on European watermarked paper (Ruse and Turners 1813), identification inscription in small cartouche below 'The Gateway at Futtypore, Sicri'
21 x 26 ¾in. (53.3 x 67.9cm.)

Provenance

The Marquis of Bute
Paul F. Walter, New York, sold, Christie’s London, 25 May 1995, lot 18
Private New York Collection, sold, Sotheby’s New York, 22 September 2000, lot 178

Special notice

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Brought to you by

Louise Broadhurst

lbroadhurst@christies.com +44 (0)20 7389 2603

Lot Essay

This imposing gateway, also known as the Buland Darwaza (Gate of Victory), was built by the Mughal Emperor Akbar in 1601 AD to mark his conquest of the Gujarat Sultanate. It is the main entrance to the Jama Masjid at Fatehpur Sikri, a city near Agra in North India which was founded by Akbar as the capital of the Mughal Empire in 1571 but eventually abandoned.

The present lot, along with fifteen other architectural views of Mughal monuments offered at Christie’s London in 1995, were originally bound in a red morocco leather album which came down by descent in the family of the Marquis of Bute. The album could have entered the Bute collection either through Lady Sophia Hastings (daughter of the Governor General of Bengal, Sir Francis, Marquis of Hastings) who married the 2nd Marquis of Bute in 1845, or through the 4th Marquis of Bute who travelled to India in 1911 with King George V and acquired a number of Mughal manuscripts during his visit.

These watercolours were executed on large sheets of watermarked paper imported from England. Clearly influenced by British taste, they reflect the steady increase in demand for views of Mughal monuments after Delhi and Agra were captured by the British in 1803.

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