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Lot Essay
Simpson visited Mirzapore on 7th January 1861, where he completed the sketch which was to form the basis for this finished watercolour, executed in 1864. The preliminary study (see Mildred Archer, Visions of India, London, 1986, pl. 76) sets out the compositional structure; Simpson has added a boat in the central foreground to animate what registers as a rather empty stretch of water.
His view is panoramic, looking across the stone ghats of Mirzapore - bathing places preceded by steep steps - and taking in the many fine temples staggering the waterfront.
Mirzapore, on the southern-most tip of the Ganges, was a great trading centre for Central India. It reached the height of its prosperity in the first half of the nineteenth century, as it was the highest point on the Ganges reached by large steamers. The opening of the railway to Allahabad in 1864 signalled its decline.
Simpson has rightly achieved almost legendary status in the context of British artists in India. He arrived in 1859, following the Indian Mutiny, determined to record the landscape and culture that was undergoing such change, with a sympathetic and observant eye. His watercolours were engraved for a number of publications, including the seminal India Ancient and Modern (1867), and his autobiography of 1903 provides us with a unique perspective upon the country at this time.
By 1861 Simpson had already toured the environs of Calcutta, the Himalayas and Down Country. Following his visit to Mirzapore he moved on to Jabalpore with his companions Lord and Lady Canning, before returning to England in January 1862. He recorded that 'After the bright colours of India, it seemed to me that the people went about with the appearance of black beetles.'
His view is panoramic, looking across the stone ghats of Mirzapore - bathing places preceded by steep steps - and taking in the many fine temples staggering the waterfront.
Mirzapore, on the southern-most tip of the Ganges, was a great trading centre for Central India. It reached the height of its prosperity in the first half of the nineteenth century, as it was the highest point on the Ganges reached by large steamers. The opening of the railway to Allahabad in 1864 signalled its decline.
Simpson has rightly achieved almost legendary status in the context of British artists in India. He arrived in 1859, following the Indian Mutiny, determined to record the landscape and culture that was undergoing such change, with a sympathetic and observant eye. His watercolours were engraved for a number of publications, including the seminal India Ancient and Modern (1867), and his autobiography of 1903 provides us with a unique perspective upon the country at this time.
By 1861 Simpson had already toured the environs of Calcutta, the Himalayas and Down Country. Following his visit to Mirzapore he moved on to Jabalpore with his companions Lord and Lady Canning, before returning to England in January 1862. He recorded that 'After the bright colours of India, it seemed to me that the people went about with the appearance of black beetles.'