Street Vendor, Ahmedabad

The wooden domestic architecture of Ahmedabad made a deep impression on Weeks, who noted its main features as being 'The deeply recessed lower story forming a veranda, and the wooden pillars with elaborately wrought consols supporting the upper stories or balconies; the whole façade is often covered with a wealth of carving, painted with tints which are rather gaudy when new, but which are exquisitely beautiful when half effaced and weather-worn... The doors of these housed, although massive and heavy, both in appearance and actual weight, are often exceedingly interesting and of great artistic beauty' (Weeks, op. cit., p. 330).

The present painting is entirely characteristic of Weeks' Ahmedabad street scenes. Indeed, both the woman and the deeply carved doorway which feature in the scene are illustrated in a grisaille sketch in Weeks' travel chronicles (ibid.). The picture is a fine example of the artist's penchant for finely-drawn painterly surfaces rendered in strong sunlight.

We are grateful to Dr. Ellen K. Morris for preparing this catalogue entry.

Dr. Morris will include the present work in her forthcoming Weeks catalogue raisonné.