A fine and detailed architectural drawing of the Taj Mahal, trees on either side.

Company School, Delhi, circa 1820.

Delhi Group of Architectural Drawings

From the founding of the East India Company early in the seventeenth century, the Mughal emperors, with their beautiful, lavish palaces and monuments in northern India, had captured the British imagination. A century earlier, the Mughals had established important schools of painting, but by the time Delhi was occupied by the British in 1803, after the Third Maratha War, their empire was vastly diminished. As a result Indian artists were readily available to provide souvenirs and mementos for their new British patrons.

Early in the nineteenth century, the British brought large sheets of Whatman paper to India, and gouache was replaced by watercolour, pen and ink for the increasingly popular architectural drawings. Despite new fashions Indian artists continued to maintain their meticulous attention to detail, a tradition derived from three centuries of miniature painting.

For further discussion on the British in India and their patronage see:

M. Archer: Company Drawings in the India Office Library, HMSO, 1972.
S.C. Welch: Room for Wonder, New York, 1978.

See also other items from Delhi Group of Architectural drawings mini000037, mini000038 and PR000040.

Watercolour on paper. 103 x 156mm. (4 x 6.1ins).