A View of the Scotch Church of Calcutta From the Gate of Tank Square

Circa 1826

Original hand-coloured aquatint on paper

Without mount: 12.5 x 17.1 in (32 x 43.5 cm)
With mount: 18.7 x 23.4 in (47.5 x 59.5 cm)

Published by Smith, Elder and Co., London

Fraser (1783-1856) arrived in Calcutta in 1814 and in six years produced these animated sketches of the busy city, published later as a collection of twenty-four superbly aquatinted plates in the book Views of Calcutta and its Environs. This is plate 12 from the same book. These colour aquatints with small details painted by hand in watercolour were developed from a water-colour drawing by James Baillie Fraser.

Fraser included in his collection five views of Tank Square. This is one of two that provides us with a view of St Andrew's church in the north-east corner of the square, on the site of the demolished Old Court House. A congregation of the Church of Scotland was formed here in 1815 by the Reverend James Bryce. The government supplied the site and private money was employed to build a kirk. In the meantime, the Exchange Building across the square was used as a church.

In March 1818, the kirk was prepared for worship. Fraser's perspective of Tank Square from the eastern gate shows "the Doric southern portico crowned by its handsome spire ... Behind the church may be seen part of the colonnade of the premises of the coachbuilders James Stewart and Company".

The present lot shows an operational aqueduct located on Council House Street.

Presently two further names for St. Andrews Church are The Scotch Kirk and Lat Sahib Ka Girja. It is situated on the northeast corner of Dalhousie Square. The second name was most likely given to it because Moira, the wife of the Governor General at the time, the Marquess of Hastings, and the Countess of Loudoun placed the foundation stone. The previous moniker came from the fact that it was constructed to cater to the needs of the Calcutta's (Kolkata) Scottish Presbyterian population.

It's interesting to know that at least nine of Fraser's prints included Christian churches, either as the main subject or as a supporting element namely Plate 6: A View of the Writers’ Building From the Monument at the West End; Plate 8: A View of Tank Square, from the West; Plate 12: A View of the Scotch Church From the Gate of Tank Square; Plate 13: View of St. Andrew’s Church, from Mission Row; Plate 14: View of Court House Street, From Near the South-Eastern Gateway of Government House; Plate 15: View of Calcutta from the Glacis of Fort William; Plate 17: View of Loll Bazaar and Portuguese Chapel; Plate 19: View of St. John’s Cathedral; and Plate 22: A View of the West Side of Tank Square.

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