A Mansion at Madras with figures in the foreground

John Gantz was an artist of Austrian extraction who was employed as a draughtsman and surveyor by the East India Company from about 1800 to 1803, although he remained in India for the rest of his life. His eldest son Justinian helped his father run the family's lithographic press in Madras and appears to have specialised in making drawings of European houses in Madras. Father and son share a detailed architectural style, often with a low horizon, as seen here. The muted palette of the present watercolour is more like John's work.