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Lot Essay
By the 1830s Turner’s pre-eminent success as a topographical artist induced various publishers to seek his involvement in projects recording places that he had not been able to visit himself, whether Greece, Egypt or the Holy Land, or, even further afield, sites in America and India (see Wilton, 1979, op. cit., pp. 444-456). As in his much earlier views of Seringapatam, in order to complete these commissions, Turner would develop his own designs derived from sketches made on-the-spot by other people. While some of the sketches were by professional architects, others were by travelling amateurs, or military men, who recorded the landscapes in which they were stationed.
This little-known watercolour of the Ganges at Kahalgaon (known as Colgong during British rule) is one of a group of seven views that Turner developed from monochrome studies by Lieutenant George Francis White (1808-1898). White was the son of an army officer, who had fought in the Peninsular War. He had enlisted at the age of seventeen, and was posted to India in 1825, remaining there until 1846. By 1828 he had been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant of the 31st Regiment of Foot. The following year he made the first of a series of explorations of the higher reaches of northern India, and it was during those excursions he made the sketches that afterwards formed the foundation for the book Views in India, chiefly among the Himalaya Mountains taken during the tours in the direction of Mussooree, Simla, the sources of the Jumna and Ganges etc. in 1829, 31, 32 (Fisher, Son & Co, London and Paris, 1838). The title page revealed that the text accompanying the images had been edited, and very likely largely written by Emma Roberts (1791-1840), who like White, was also from a military family, and had been based in Kolkata (then Calcutta) in the early 1830s. After health concerns she had returned to England by 1833. But when work began on White’s book she had recently completed her own Scenes and Characteristics of Hindostan; with sketches of Anglo-Indian Society (1835), as well as contributing commentaries to Views in India, China, and on the Shores of the Red Sea; Drawn by Prout, Stanfield, Cattermole, Purses, Cox, Austen &c from original sketches by Commander Robert Elliott, R.N (1835).
Some of these artists were also commissioned, alongside Turner, to transform White’s sketches into more resolved designs that were engraved for the book. A note at the start of the published volume boasted, ‘The Publishers have spared neither pains nor cost in the [twenty-nine] Engravings, which have been got up at a vast expense (£2,400), from Drawings executed on the spot by an enterprising and accomplished traveller.’ All seven of Turner’s images were finished and printed by 1836, the work undertaken by engravers who had typically worked with him on other projects. Chief of these was Edward Goodall (1795-1870), one of the most prolific of Turner’s collaborators, whose meticulous work on Rocks at Colgong on the Ganges ensured it was given prominence as the Frontispiece to the whole book.
Working from White’s original sketch of Kahalgaon (one of three of his works now in the collection at Tate Britain: T06479), Turner had cropped out a rocky foreground in order to emphasise the slow-flowing river, supplementing the expanded stretch of water with a variety of picturesque boats, while embellishing the riverbank with languid figures in the shade of the trees. Curiously, having given such prominence to steamboats in his recent depictions of the River Seine, he chose here not to include one of the iron boats plying the Ganges, newly introduced by the government, which are described enthusiastically in the accompanying text. Even so, the commentary evocatively summarised the chief landmarks in Turner’s scene:
‘These rocks are esteemed holy by Hindoo devotees, and have been sculpted in many places with the effigies of their gods; a variety of wild garlands, the luxuriant creepers of the soil, fling down their rich wreaths over the ragged masses of these crags, and tangled shrubs spring wherever a shallow bed of earth permits them to take root. In fact, the luxury of foliage cannot be seen to greater perfection than from the rocky islets of Colgong, which overlook the lovely woods spreading in all directions on the opposite shore; while beyond, the Rajmhal hills gleam with the purple glory of the amethyst.’
We are grateful to Ian Warrell for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.
This little-known watercolour of the Ganges at Kahalgaon (known as Colgong during British rule) is one of a group of seven views that Turner developed from monochrome studies by Lieutenant George Francis White (1808-1898). White was the son of an army officer, who had fought in the Peninsular War. He had enlisted at the age of seventeen, and was posted to India in 1825, remaining there until 1846. By 1828 he had been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant of the 31st Regiment of Foot. The following year he made the first of a series of explorations of the higher reaches of northern India, and it was during those excursions he made the sketches that afterwards formed the foundation for the book Views in India, chiefly among the Himalaya Mountains taken during the tours in the direction of Mussooree, Simla, the sources of the Jumna and Ganges etc. in 1829, 31, 32 (Fisher, Son & Co, London and Paris, 1838). The title page revealed that the text accompanying the images had been edited, and very likely largely written by Emma Roberts (1791-1840), who like White, was also from a military family, and had been based in Kolkata (then Calcutta) in the early 1830s. After health concerns she had returned to England by 1833. But when work began on White’s book she had recently completed her own Scenes and Characteristics of Hindostan; with sketches of Anglo-Indian Society (1835), as well as contributing commentaries to Views in India, China, and on the Shores of the Red Sea; Drawn by Prout, Stanfield, Cattermole, Purses, Cox, Austen &c from original sketches by Commander Robert Elliott, R.N (1835).
Some of these artists were also commissioned, alongside Turner, to transform White’s sketches into more resolved designs that were engraved for the book. A note at the start of the published volume boasted, ‘The Publishers have spared neither pains nor cost in the [twenty-nine] Engravings, which have been got up at a vast expense (£2,400), from Drawings executed on the spot by an enterprising and accomplished traveller.’ All seven of Turner’s images were finished and printed by 1836, the work undertaken by engravers who had typically worked with him on other projects. Chief of these was Edward Goodall (1795-1870), one of the most prolific of Turner’s collaborators, whose meticulous work on Rocks at Colgong on the Ganges ensured it was given prominence as the Frontispiece to the whole book.
Working from White’s original sketch of Kahalgaon (one of three of his works now in the collection at Tate Britain: T06479), Turner had cropped out a rocky foreground in order to emphasise the slow-flowing river, supplementing the expanded stretch of water with a variety of picturesque boats, while embellishing the riverbank with languid figures in the shade of the trees. Curiously, having given such prominence to steamboats in his recent depictions of the River Seine, he chose here not to include one of the iron boats plying the Ganges, newly introduced by the government, which are described enthusiastically in the accompanying text. Even so, the commentary evocatively summarised the chief landmarks in Turner’s scene:
‘These rocks are esteemed holy by Hindoo devotees, and have been sculpted in many places with the effigies of their gods; a variety of wild garlands, the luxuriant creepers of the soil, fling down their rich wreaths over the ragged masses of these crags, and tangled shrubs spring wherever a shallow bed of earth permits them to take root. In fact, the luxury of foliage cannot be seen to greater perfection than from the rocky islets of Colgong, which overlook the lovely woods spreading in all directions on the opposite shore; while beyond, the Rajmhal hills gleam with the purple glory of the amethyst.’
We are grateful to Ian Warrell for his help in preparing this catalogue entry.