NORTH INDIA, DATED 1867

The increasing numbers of European visitors to India provided local artists with a growing opportunity to sell them mementoes with which to remember what they saw in India. By the early 19th century there seemed a particular demand for paintings of the Mughal monuments of Delhi and Agra, often in small and compact albums which were easy to pack and carry like the current lot. Rather than a European visitor to India, this album was probably belonged to Raden Saleh Sjarif Bustaman (1811-1880) of Java whose photograph is on the inside cover. Raden Saleh was a prominent Romantic painter considered one of the first 'modern' Indonesian (Dutch East Indies at that time) artists. Raden Saleh travelled to the Netherlands to study art in 1829 and remained in Europe until returning to the Dutch East Indies in 1852. Similar Company School albums of views of monuments have been sold in these Rooms 28 October 2021, lot 59, 27 April 2023, lot 107 and 24 October 2024, lot 179.