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Lot Essay
"In 1898, at the age of twenty-two, [Esch] sailed to India to take up an appointment on the construction of the Bengal-Nagpur railway, and in the course of the next twenty-five years enjoyed a thriving career as an architect based in Calcutta. On the boat out he met and impressed the new viceroy, Lord Curzon, an encounter which gave him an entrée into Calcutta society ... Subsequently, Esch was engaged by Curzon for the design of some minor government works, and in 1910 he was appointed superintending architect for the construction of the Victoria Memorial Hall in Calcutta...
In 1914 Esch was engaged by the Nizam of Hyderabad, Osman Ali Khan, to assist in the redevelopment of that city following its devastation by floods and plague in 1908 and 1911. His contribution was the design of numerous substantial public buildings including the railway station (1914), the high court (1916), the city high school (1917-20), and the Osmania General Hospital (1918-21). Departing here from the strictly classical style he employed in Calcutta, he developed instead a new style based on the Islamic architecture of southern India, which he found within the Nizam's domains. He worked closely with local craftsmen and architects, who continued to produce further public buildings in the city, developing his manner, after his departure. On this subject, he delivered a lecture to the India Society in London in 1942. He thus became one of the most significant practitioners of and apologists for what has come to be known as the Indo-Saracenic movement: the use of Indian sources for architecture in late British India." (ODNB)
This large and highly detailed design by Esch of the Osmania General Hospital was presented by to the Nizam and subsequently accepted. The hospital is still in use today.
In 1914 Esch was engaged by the Nizam of Hyderabad, Osman Ali Khan, to assist in the redevelopment of that city following its devastation by floods and plague in 1908 and 1911. His contribution was the design of numerous substantial public buildings including the railway station (1914), the high court (1916), the city high school (1917-20), and the Osmania General Hospital (1918-21). Departing here from the strictly classical style he employed in Calcutta, he developed instead a new style based on the Islamic architecture of southern India, which he found within the Nizam's domains. He worked closely with local craftsmen and architects, who continued to produce further public buildings in the city, developing his manner, after his departure. On this subject, he delivered a lecture to the India Society in London in 1942. He thus became one of the most significant practitioners of and apologists for what has come to be known as the Indo-Saracenic movement: the use of Indian sources for architecture in late British India." (ODNB)
This large and highly detailed design by Esch of the Osmania General Hospital was presented by to the Nizam and subsequently accepted. The hospital is still in use today.