A View of the North End of Chunar Gur

1787

Hand-coloured aquatint on paper

12.25 x 17.75 in   |  31 x 45 cm

"This is plate 2 from William Hodges' book 'Select Views in India'. Chunar' s strategic position made it an important town. The fort, known as Chunargarh, was built on a rocky promontory on the Ganges. It was a Mughal garrison for almost two centuries before it passed into the hands of the Nawabs of Oudh in 1750. After the Battle of Buxar in 1764 the British took control of it. William Hodges and his patron, the Governor General Warren Hastings, sought refuge in Chunargarh on the night of 21 August 1781, after Raja Chait Singh's rebellion against British rule." (Source: British Library Board)

This print was part of William Hodges' pioneering work "Select Views in India, Drawn on the Spot, in the Years 1780, 1781, 1782, and 1783, and Executed in Aquatinta, by William Hodges" on the architectural and picturesque wonders of India. He was the first professional landscape artist to visit India to meet the new demand for paintings of Indian scenery. His architectural subjects depicted many little-known Muslim tombs and mosques, temples, forts and palaces in northern India. Hodges' writing and illustrations are considered to be of seminal importance by both Indian and Western historians.

Hodges was born in London to a blacksmith. He was employed as an errand-boy in Shipley's drawing school, where he learnt how to draw in his spare time. He was noticed by Richard Wilson, a landscape painter, and was taken as the latter's assistant and pupil. By 1766, Hodges was holding exhibitions of his work. In 1772, he was appointed as draughtsman to Captain James Cook's second expedition to the South Seas. Inspired by the voyage, he made and exhibited several pictures at the Royal Academy in London in 1776 and 1777.

In 1778, following the death of his wife, Hodges left for India. He arrived there via Madras, then travelled up the Coromandel coast to visit Calcutta, Bengal, Patna, Benares and Bidjegur before returning to Calcutta due to illness. After recovery he visited Allahabad, Cawnpoor, Lucknow, Agra and Fyzabad. Travelling through the country allowed him to observe its architecture, inhabitants, customs and scenery up close. He left India in 1783 and on his return to London, exhibited 25 oil paintings and a selection of aquatints at the Royal Academy between 1785 and 1794. These works "gave a completely new and direct vision of India translated into an eighteenth-century painter's composition. His views of the countryside with its great rivers and forests had little in common with the popular picture of India gained from old engravings in the travelers' accounts. His architectural subjects depicted many little-known Muslim tombs and mosques, Hindu temples, forts and palaces in Upper India....."(India Observed).

The famed British aquatint master, Thomas Daniell, mastered the art of aquatint hoping to emulate Hodge's commercial success.

This work will be shipped unframed

NON-EXPORTABLE