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Lot Essay
Topographical panoramas were something of a mania in 19th Century Calcutta, beginning with the moving panorama of lithographed plates of the buildings round the Maidan by William Wood published in 1833 and continuing with the 360° continuous panorama from the Ochterlony Monument by Frederick Fiebig in 1847. Photographic panoramas were taken from the same site by Josiah Rowe in 1859 and by Samuel Bourne (1868-69). Nor were earlier painted ones absent for one by Jacob Janssen contemporary with this one, see Visions of India, Christie's, London, 17 June 1998, lot 98.
The present panorama dates from the 1850s, with a terminus post quem provided by the tower and spire of St. Paul's Cathedral, finished by 1845. The work is accompanied by a key with numbers indicating the important buildings. It begins looking north along the Chowringhee Road (2) at the house of Mr. Macleod Wylie (1) across the tank known as the General's Tank (3) opposite the beginning of Park Street. The tall column is the Ochterlony Monument (4) erected to the memory of General Sir David Ochterlony in 1828. Government House (5) the new palace built by the Marquess Wellesley (1798-1805) occupies the centre of Esplanade Row (7). The spire of St. John's Church (6), consecrated 1788 and designated the cathedral of Calcutta in 1814, rises to the left. Two further classical buildings along this street are the Town Hall (7), completed 1813, and the Supreme Court (8), built by 1780 which was shortly to be demolished and replaced by the present neo-Gothic construction in the late 1860s. Where Esplanade Row meets the river Hooghly were the Waterworks (10), a steam engine which pumped water up the street level to be flushed along the gutters for cleansing the streets. The Course (11) was the carriage road for taking the evening air running across the Maidan (13) or great open expanse on which no buildings were allowed as a defensive measure around Fort William. Fort William itself (12) was built in 1757-78 as a replacement for the old Fort William further north partially destroyed during the attack on Calcutta by Siraj-ud-Dowlah in 1756. Further along may be seen the spire of Alipore church (14), a southern suburb of the city, and the race course and stand (15) at the southern edge of the Maidan. Across the Circular road stands the Girls' School (16), once the Military Orphanage for Officers' Children but subsequently restricted to girl orphans, in the house built and once occupied by Richard Barwell, Hastings' ally; and the General Hospital (17) founded in 1768. The road to the Cathedral (18) branches off from the southern end of Chowringhee Road (20) to the new Gothic Cathedral (19) dedicated to Saint Paul, consecrated in 1847, when St. John's reverted to being a parish church. The view of course shows the old tower and spire, which fell in the earthquake of 1897 and were replaced by the present tower modelled on that of Canterbury. The panorama ends looking south in the opposite direction to its starting point at the house of Mr. Edward Currie (21). Mcleod Wylie was a prominent advocate and then judge in Calcutta in the mid-19th Century, a contemporary of Thackeray's father, while Edward Currie was at the summit of his career in the civil service as a member of the Legislative Council of India, retiring in 1859. For further information on Calcutta's topography, see J. P. Losty, Calcutta City of Palaces, The British Library, London, 1990.
The present panorama dates from the 1850s, with a terminus post quem provided by the tower and spire of St. Paul's Cathedral, finished by 1845. The work is accompanied by a key with numbers indicating the important buildings. It begins looking north along the Chowringhee Road (2) at the house of Mr. Macleod Wylie (1) across the tank known as the General's Tank (3) opposite the beginning of Park Street. The tall column is the Ochterlony Monument (4) erected to the memory of General Sir David Ochterlony in 1828. Government House (5) the new palace built by the Marquess Wellesley (1798-1805) occupies the centre of Esplanade Row (7). The spire of St. John's Church (6), consecrated 1788 and designated the cathedral of Calcutta in 1814, rises to the left. Two further classical buildings along this street are the Town Hall (7), completed 1813, and the Supreme Court (8), built by 1780 which was shortly to be demolished and replaced by the present neo-Gothic construction in the late 1860s. Where Esplanade Row meets the river Hooghly were the Waterworks (10), a steam engine which pumped water up the street level to be flushed along the gutters for cleansing the streets. The Course (11) was the carriage road for taking the evening air running across the Maidan (13) or great open expanse on which no buildings were allowed as a defensive measure around Fort William. Fort William itself (12) was built in 1757-78 as a replacement for the old Fort William further north partially destroyed during the attack on Calcutta by Siraj-ud-Dowlah in 1756. Further along may be seen the spire of Alipore church (14), a southern suburb of the city, and the race course and stand (15) at the southern edge of the Maidan. Across the Circular road stands the Girls' School (16), once the Military Orphanage for Officers' Children but subsequently restricted to girl orphans, in the house built and once occupied by Richard Barwell, Hastings' ally; and the General Hospital (17) founded in 1768. The road to the Cathedral (18) branches off from the southern end of Chowringhee Road (20) to the new Gothic Cathedral (19) dedicated to Saint Paul, consecrated in 1847, when St. John's reverted to being a parish church. The view of course shows the old tower and spire, which fell in the earthquake of 1897 and were replaced by the present tower modelled on that of Canterbury. The panorama ends looking south in the opposite direction to its starting point at the house of Mr. Edward Currie (21). Mcleod Wylie was a prominent advocate and then judge in Calcutta in the mid-19th Century, a contemporary of Thackeray's father, while Edward Currie was at the summit of his career in the civil service as a member of the Legislative Council of India, retiring in 1859. For further information on Calcutta's topography, see J. P. Losty, Calcutta City of Palaces, The British Library, London, 1990.