View of the Lal Darwaza on the Matwa Road, between the Purana Qila and Old City, Delhi

In October 1876 Val Prinsep was asked by Lord Lytton, Viceroy of India and a family friend, to go to India and paint the great Assemblage or durbar held at Delhi to mark Queen Victoria's assumption of the title Empress of India. The enormous canvas, crowded with portraits of Maharajahs and other dignitaries, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1880. This present oil sketch was presumably executed whilst on this same visit to India.