The Taj Mahal, Agra

Brabazon spent several months in India from 1875 to 1876. His experiences caused a profound change in the direction of his work and the watercolours he produced exhibit a much looser style than his previous work. The Taj Mahal was his favourite subject and C. Lewis Hind writes in his biography of the artist 'Perhaps in no subject was he so personal, so sure of his "audacities and omissions," so apparently careless, yet so completely the artist, as in his impressions of the Taj Mahal, near Agra...It hardly looks like a real building in Brabazon's rendering. It is an Eastern dream, that may vanish into air before the wave of a magician's wand.' (Hercules Brabazon Brabazon: His Art and Life, London, 1912, pp. 22-23). India saw the start of what is known as Brabazon's later short hand.