Lot Essay
Ramnagar is situated on the right bank of the Ganges, a little way up river from the city of Benares (see lot 22). The fortified palace of the Raja of Benares is a congeries of buildings of various dates, mostly of the 17th and 18th Centuries. As the Daniells noted, it was much improved by Chait Singh, the Raja who had had an infamous tussle with the Governor General, Warren Hastings, in 1781, after refusing to pay what he saw as an unwarranted levy. William Hodges had been in Hastings' party at the time and later wrote an eye-witness report of the alarming sequence of events (Hodges, 1794, pp. 47-57). A calmer scene greeted the Daniells. They first passed through Ramnagar on 5 December 1788: 'Sailed by Ramnagar with a fine Wind abt 9oC, but were soon obliged to lower the sails, the Wind blowing strong ahead of us' (Journal). They returned to Benares on 17 November 1789 for a longer stay, and this watercolour probably dates from the later period. In the left foreground is a budgerow, the type of vessel used by the Daniells, and they have depicted themselves sketching on deck. An aquatint version of this watercolour (Oriental Scenery, vol.I, no.14) was published in March 1796.