NORTH INDIA, 19TH CENTURY

Although Europeans would have been familiar with Delhi from the romantic accounts of early travellers to India and the Mughal court, it was not until after the capture of Delhi and Agra in 1803 and the resolution of the Third Maratha War in 1818 that travel to the formerly great capitals became readily available.

In the late 18^th century William Hodges and Thomas and William Daniell had produced early studies of the important Mughal monuments which were published back in England. The Daniells spent seven years producing the one hundred and forty four studies in Oriental Scenery, the most comprehensive view of India up to that time. Yet even when reprinted in England, the large and detailed studies were expensive to buy despite their popularity (Mildred Archer, Company Paintings: Indian Paintings of the British Period, London, 1992).

Perhaps it was the popularity of the Daniells etchings or the influence of European engineers’ drawings, but by the early 19^th century Indian artists began producing great numbers of detailed studies of the monuments of India. These studies were usually composed in a smaller size that was more practical to pack and carry. It fast became commonplace for European visitors to collect collections of views of Indian monuments to take as souvenirs back home. However today the importance of these groups of paintings lies in their documentation of India at the time of painting (B. Schmitz, After the Great Mughals: Painting in Delhi and the Regional Courts in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, Mumbai, 2002, p. 8).

The present album consists of paintings from Delhi and Agra and includes many of the favourite subjects. This includes studies of the interior and exterior of the Taj Mahal, Humayun’s Tomb, and Fatehpur Sikri. However, the group also includes some more rarely found subjects. There is an engineer’s style cross-sectional plan of the Taj Mahal and a painting of the Chini ka Rauza, Agra, mistakenly labelled as the Tomb of Abdullah Khan but distinctive for its zigzag-striped dome. There is also a depiction of Tomb of Khwaja Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi and some slightly adventurous three-quarter angle views of the more popular monuments. A similar group of architectural views sold in these Rooms 28 October 2018, lot 157 and another 28 October 2021, lot 59.

Full list of illustrations (name in italics indicates title as given in the album):
1. The Tomb of Abdullah Khan, Wazir of Shah Jahan (Chini ka Rauza, Delhi)
2. The Motee Masjid
3. The Zuffer Mahal (Zafar Mahal, Red Fort, Delhi)
4. The Fort from the river
5. The pearl mosque, Agra
6. The Tajh Mahal (Taj Mahal)
7. The rung Mahul (Rang Mahal, Red Fort, Agra)
8. the tomb of etemad ul dowla (Tomb of Itimad ud Dawla, Agra)
9. the gateway of futtehpoor secri (Buland Darwaza, Fatehpur Sikri)
10. the sunehri sunehri musjid of Roshan ud dawla (Sunehri Masjid, Delhi)
11. the Lahore gate of the palace (Red Fort, Delhi)
12. the interior of rung muhul (Rang Mahal, Red Fort, Delhi)
13. Diwani khas (Mislabelled. The Musamman Burj, Red Fort, Agra)
14.the juma musjid (Delhi)
15. the fragment of the interior tajih (View of the tomb sanctuary on the interior of the Taj Mahal)
16. the lahore gate (Red Fort, Delhi)
17. the tajh interior (View of the interior of the Taj Mahal)
18. the lahore gate palace (Red Fort, Delhi)
19. the tomb of saint nizamuddin (Nizamuddin Dargah, Delhi)
20. the tomb of akbar
21. the tajh (Taj Mahal)
22. the throne in the dewane aam (Diwan-i Am, Red Fort, Delhi)
23. the dewane khas (Diwan-i Khas, Red Fort, Agra)
24. Houmayoon's tomb (Humayun's Tomb)
25. mausoleum of safdar jung
26. sikandra
27. the tomb on top yard (Akbar's Tomb, Sikandra)
28. mausoleum s Jung (Safdar Jung's Tomb, Delhi)
29. the diwan i aam red fort
30. the tomb of saint selim (Tomb of Selim Chishti, Fatehpur Sikri)
31. sawun summer house (Red Fort, Agra)
32. the taj from the bank
33. the shrine of saint sharaf bu ali (The shrine of Shah Sharaf Bu 'Ali Qalandari at Panipat)
34. the inner room of the bath (Red Fort, Delhi)
35. the agra fort
36. the agra fort
37. the agra fort
38. the mughal splendour
39. the juma musjid (Delhi)
40. the Diwan i khas (Red Fort, Delhi)