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Lot Essay
This painting belonged to a remarkable album of 23 paintings entitled 'VIEWS BY SEETA RAM FROM SECUNDRA TO AGRA, VOL.IX' which was sold at Sotheby's London, 9 July 1974. This album was sold alongside another, labelled volume I, which contained the same number of paintings depicting views of the River Ganges in Bengal and Bihar. The little-known artist of these two albums, Sita Ram, was instantly brought to prominence as "the most brilliant and versatile Indian artist of his time" (Jerry Losty in J.K.Bautze, Indian and Western Painting, 1770-1910, Virginia, 1998, p.309). In 1995, a further eight volumes were acquired by the British Library. This completed a ten volume series of 229 paintings completed between 1813 and early 1817.
The ten volumes of views were commissioned by the Marquess and Marchioness of Hastings, who arrived in India in 1813 for the Marquess, known as the Earl of Moira until 1816, to assume the post of governor-general of Bengal. The Marquess soon left Barrackpore for a long tour with his wife and children through the foothills of the Himalayas to Delhi before returning through Agra to Calcutta. The seventeen month tour was formally intended to meet Indian rulers and viziers of the key states and to inspect British possessions in India, however it was also an opportunity to visit the most famous architectural landmarks of north India. The paintings serve as illustrations to the Marquess of Hastings' personal journal which he kept in fastidious detail. The visit to the Taj Mahal was recorded through the 23rd-27th February 1815 during which time Sita Ram likely made drafts and preparatory drawings. We know that following the trip to Agra the group waited out the hot season in Fatehgarh, near Farrukhbad, where the artist likely finished many of the paintings and pasted them onto the backing papers before they were labelled and bound into albums (Jerry Losty, Sita Ram's Painted views of India: Lord Hastings's Journey from Calcutta t the Punjab, London 2015, p.23)
In addition to the ten volume series from this large trip, Sita Ram is known to have completed at least two further albums for Hastings on subsequent trips in 1817 and 1820-21 (Jerry Losty, "Sita Ram" in William Dalrymple (ed.), Forgotten Masters, Indian Painting for the East India Company, London, 2019, p.172). The albums returned with the Marquess and Marchioness of Hastings to Britain in 1823 and were bequeathed to their daughter Sophia Frederica Christina Rawdon-Hastings. She would marry John Critchon-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute and the albums remained together in Mount Stewart House on the Isle of Bute until consigned to auction in 1974.
Little is known of Sita Ram's early career but he was almost certainly trained in Murshidabad. Murshidabad painting in the late 18th century had adapted towards British painting sensibilities. Thick layers of burnished pigments were replaced by a preference for loose brushwork, washes and watercolours (ibid, p.174). As patronage in Murshidabad dried up, artists moved to Calcutta to seek work for British patrons in the city who commissioned natural history and botanical studies, perhaps the most famous being the album painted for Lady Impey. An album of flower studies painted by Sita Ram in 1805 shows that he followed this same path and he would go on to contribute paintings to a large album of bird and animal studies for Lady Hastings which includes a fine painting of a gharial crocodile (British Library, Add.Or.5008).
Paintings of landscape and in particular architecture were evidently Sita Ram's forte. He excelled in his technical style drawings of interiors of monuments as well as incorporating adopting and reinterpreting the landscape painting of Thomas Daniell and William Hodges. Aquatints of both of these artists were easily available to artists in Murshidabad and their influence is clearly felt. Losty writes that "Sita Ram seems to be the first Indian artist to treat the monuments as subjects of picturesque painting and show them as they were in reality and their natural setting" (Losty, op.cit., p. 177).
Other views of the Taj Mahal include a view of the monument in the morning light from the same series was sold in these Rooms, 24 September 2003, lot 119 and the same view at night, formerly in the collection of Edith & Stuart Cary Welch, was sold in Sotheby's London, 25 October 2023, lot 56. A view of the interior of the Taj Mahal also from the Marquess and Marchioness of Hastings series was sold at Sotheby's London, 23 October 2024, lot 176.
The ten volumes of views were commissioned by the Marquess and Marchioness of Hastings, who arrived in India in 1813 for the Marquess, known as the Earl of Moira until 1816, to assume the post of governor-general of Bengal. The Marquess soon left Barrackpore for a long tour with his wife and children through the foothills of the Himalayas to Delhi before returning through Agra to Calcutta. The seventeen month tour was formally intended to meet Indian rulers and viziers of the key states and to inspect British possessions in India, however it was also an opportunity to visit the most famous architectural landmarks of north India. The paintings serve as illustrations to the Marquess of Hastings' personal journal which he kept in fastidious detail. The visit to the Taj Mahal was recorded through the 23rd-27th February 1815 during which time Sita Ram likely made drafts and preparatory drawings. We know that following the trip to Agra the group waited out the hot season in Fatehgarh, near Farrukhbad, where the artist likely finished many of the paintings and pasted them onto the backing papers before they were labelled and bound into albums (Jerry Losty, Sita Ram's Painted views of India: Lord Hastings's Journey from Calcutta t the Punjab, London 2015, p.23)
In addition to the ten volume series from this large trip, Sita Ram is known to have completed at least two further albums for Hastings on subsequent trips in 1817 and 1820-21 (Jerry Losty, "Sita Ram" in William Dalrymple (ed.), Forgotten Masters, Indian Painting for the East India Company, London, 2019, p.172). The albums returned with the Marquess and Marchioness of Hastings to Britain in 1823 and were bequeathed to their daughter Sophia Frederica Christina Rawdon-Hastings. She would marry John Critchon-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute and the albums remained together in Mount Stewart House on the Isle of Bute until consigned to auction in 1974.
Little is known of Sita Ram's early career but he was almost certainly trained in Murshidabad. Murshidabad painting in the late 18th century had adapted towards British painting sensibilities. Thick layers of burnished pigments were replaced by a preference for loose brushwork, washes and watercolours (ibid, p.174). As patronage in Murshidabad dried up, artists moved to Calcutta to seek work for British patrons in the city who commissioned natural history and botanical studies, perhaps the most famous being the album painted for Lady Impey. An album of flower studies painted by Sita Ram in 1805 shows that he followed this same path and he would go on to contribute paintings to a large album of bird and animal studies for Lady Hastings which includes a fine painting of a gharial crocodile (British Library, Add.Or.5008).
Paintings of landscape and in particular architecture were evidently Sita Ram's forte. He excelled in his technical style drawings of interiors of monuments as well as incorporating adopting and reinterpreting the landscape painting of Thomas Daniell and William Hodges. Aquatints of both of these artists were easily available to artists in Murshidabad and their influence is clearly felt. Losty writes that "Sita Ram seems to be the first Indian artist to treat the monuments as subjects of picturesque painting and show them as they were in reality and their natural setting" (Losty, op.cit., p. 177).
Other views of the Taj Mahal include a view of the monument in the morning light from the same series was sold in these Rooms, 24 September 2003, lot 119 and the same view at night, formerly in the collection of Edith & Stuart Cary Welch, was sold in Sotheby's London, 25 October 2023, lot 56. A view of the interior of the Taj Mahal also from the Marquess and Marchioness of Hastings series was sold at Sotheby's London, 23 October 2024, lot 176.