Beschreibung:

THOMAS DANIELL and WILLIAM DANIELL View on the Chitpore Road, Calcutta; Govinda Ram Mittee's Pagoda, Calcutta; View taken near the City of Sirinagur (Abbey 420, no.s 28, 31 and 105; Archer II, 2, 5 and IV, 24) hand-coloured aquatints, August 1797, August 1798, January 1805, framed and glazed, unexamined out of frames (occasional small marks affecting sky areas) Image: 455 x 595mm; 450 x 595mm; 460 x 600mm 1792: 'In this view on the Chitpore road (taken in the Monsoon season) appears the house of a native Bengal merchant; the style of architecture in its ornamental parts is Mahommedan, except the turret, which is an unsuccessful attempt at the Grecian, as introduced by the Portugueze. These incongruities very frequently occur in modern Indian buildings, whose owners have intercourse with Europeans.' January-February 1792: 'The Pagoda, or Hindoo Temple, which is dedicated to Seeva, was built by Govinda Ram Mittee, a native merchant, residing in the neighbourhood of Calcutta, but never completely finished.' The Daniells claimed to have been 'the first Europeans that had ever visited Sirinagur'. 27 April 1789: 'The mountains are here embellished with scattered villages, and their sides with regular horizontal stripes of cultivation, producing an effect not so agreeable to the artistical as the philanthropic observer, who is much less interested by the beauties of form than by such unpicturesque indications of useful industry.' (3)