A View of the Great Pagoda at Tanjore
25 March, 1787
Original hand-coloured aquatint with etching on paper
13 x 19 in | 33 x 48.3 cm
"This is plate 23 from William Hodges' book 'Select Views in India', showing the Rajarajeshvara Temple at Thanjavur. Hodges composed this picture without ever visiting Thanjavur. His source was a sketch made by a surveyor named Mr Topping.
The Rajarajeshvara Temple is also known as the Brihadishvara Temple and is one of the greatest temples in southern India. It was built under the patronage of Rajaraja I of the Chola dynasty in AD1010. The vimana, or principal sanctuary, is surmounted by a tall pyramidal stone tower and stands in a large rectangular courtyard, entered on the east through two gateways or gopuras. This picture was used by Hodges in contrast to his view the Pagodas at Deogarh, which he saw as illustrating the early and the later stages of Indian architecture." (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. Hewas 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