ANONYMOUS | Christie's

The invention of photography in the middle of the 19th century was to change forever the way in which the world was to be represented in visual form. The first boxes of photographic equipment were delivered to India only a few years after the new art was revealed in England and France in 1839, and despite difficulties associated with the often extreme climatic conditions, the young medium very quickly became accepted in this continent which had already inspired British and European artists for almost a century. The first photographic society was established in Bombay in 1854, only a year after the inauguration of the Photographic Society of Great Britain, and counted a membership of over two hundred by 1855. Others quickly followed in Madras and Calcutta. The first Viceroy, Lord Canning, was enthusiastic in his official support for new photographic projects and Lady Canning was no less influential with her patronage. Among the earliest photographers were surgeons and army officers, their work perhaps best exemplified by the achievements of Dr. John Murray in Agra and Capt. Linnaeus Tripe of the Madras Establishment of the East India Company's army. In 1855, cadets at the Company's military academy at Addiscombe began to learn the basics of photography, and in the same year the Company directed that photographers should now be employed in place of draughtsmen to continue the systematic recording of archaeological sites. It was not too long before professional photographers such as Samuel Bourne started retracing the steps of earlier artists, travelling the length of the country in search of picturesque views, and photography became the pre-eminent method of recording the nation's topography. While many photographers sought to reveal the beauty or romance of the Indian landscape or architecture, others favoured the camera for its ability to document the diversity of human life and concentrated on portrait and genre studies. The rise in the use of photography coincided with a troubled period in India's history, particularly evident in 1857-58 when the Anglo-Italian photographer, Felice Beato, and others showed the extent of the physical scars left after the Mutiny. Moving perhaps even further from the British pictorial tradition in India were those realists who depicted in detail the effects of famine or plague such as Capt. W. W. Hooper. Paul F. Walter started collecting photographs of India in the early 1970s, having already been actively collecting Indian art for some time. Like many collectors he acquired his first photographs because they reminded him of places he had been, and he bought them simply because he liked the images. Over a period of approximately ten years he proceeded to amass a collection which manages to illustrate both the history of photography in 19th century India and the richness and complexity of a country of enormous physical and cultural diversity. His collection shows the timeless quality of photography at its best: as capable of revealing the essential qualities of simple insects as it is of displaying the grandeur and drama of one of the world's great works of architecture; or of contrasting the ascetic existence of a Hindu penitent with the rich exoticism of a Maharaja. AFTERNOON SESSION AT 2.30 P.M. PRECISELY The Paul F. Walter Collection of Indian Photographs NORTH EASTERN INDIA

ANONYMOUS

Details

ANONYMOUS

Calcutta, with St. Paul's Cathedral, circa early 1850s

A half-plate daguerreotype, plain gilt-metal mount, partially sealed with Indian newspaper, plush-lined folding morocco case, gilt clasps.

Literature

Pal and Dehejia, From Merchants to Emperors, British Artists and India 1757-1930, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1986, p. 182, pl. no. 191.

Exhibited

New York, The Morgan Library and Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, From Merchants to Emperors, British Artists and India, 1757-1930, 1986-87.

Lot Essay

A fine panoramic view across the city, taken from a rooftop position with a grand classical villa in the foreground. A particularly clear, crisp image in which it is possible to see two Indian figures standing on the upper balcony of the villa, as well as the tower and spire of the distant cathedral which was completed in 1847.

Surviving daguerreotype views of India are extremely rare. Although Thacker & Co. of Calcutta are recorded importing daguerreotype apparatus as early as January 1840, it was not until 1852 that the first daguerreotype studio was established in Calcutta by J. W. Newland, who may have been the photographer responsible for this view.

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