Old Master & British Drawings

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Lot 226
  • 226

Thomas Daniell, R.A.

Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 GBP
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Description

  • Thomas Daniell, R.A.
  • The Rope Bridge, Srinagar, Garhwal, Uttaranchal, India
  • Watercolour over pencil with pen and brown ink, on laid paper watermarked: J WHATMAN;
    inscribed on the original mount lower centre: THE ROPE BRIDGE AT SIRINAGUR, OVER THE ALUCNINDRA, THE PRINCIPAL BRANCH OF THE RIVER GANGES; further inscribed on the original mount lower right: Taken at the time of the evacuation of the / City in consequence of the approach of / a large Army from Almorah. in the / Year 1789 -
  • 584 by 775 mm

Provenance

The Collection of the Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company;
their sale, London, Christie's, 24 September 1996, lot 64

Exhibited

London, Commonwealth Institute, The Daniells in India 1786-1793, 1960, no. 46;
Washington, Smithsonian Institution, The Daniells in India, 1962, no. 20;
London, Spinks, Adventurers in Eighteenth Century India: Thomas and William Daniell, 1974, no. 21

Literature

J.R. Abbey, Travel, Aquatint and Lithography 1770-1860, vol. 2, London 1957, fig. 420, p. 376, no. 149

Catalogue Note

ENGRAVED:

T. and W. Daniell, aquatint engraving, for Oriental Scenery, 1805, vol. IV, no. 23

For eight years, between 1785 and 1793, Thomas Daniell R.A. travelled in India with his nephew and fellow artist William Daniell R.A. (1769-1837). Thomas executed this watercolour having witnessed the siege of Srinagar in the North Indian Kingdom of Garhwal on the 28th April 1789. William noted in his diary on that day that: 'in consequence of the foresaid news [of imminent attack] the inhabitants of Srinagar were crossing the river as quick as possible, they crowded on the bridge so fast that we thought at times it would have broke'. 

In their joint publication Oriental Scenery, first published in 1795, the Daniells expanded further on the events depicted in this watercolour: 'The river here [Srinagar] is too rapid to be passed, even by boats and therefore the bridge of ropes... offered the only means for the Rajah and his people to effect their retreat, which circumstances presented an affecting scene... This bridge, which is 240 feet in length, is an ingenious contrivance, and so simple that it may be soon erected and soon removed. On each side of the river two strong and lofty poles are fixed in the ground, and kept together with transverse pieces from side to side. From the bottom of those upright poles are carried other ropes which are drawn towards the upper ones by a lacing of cords, while flat pieces of bamboo are so fastened to the lower cords as to form a tolerably commodious footway'.1

Three oil paintings of this subject exist. One in the Victoria Memorial Museum, Calcutta, dated to circa 1791, another in the Yale Center, New Haven dated to circa 1800, and another in the India Office Library and Records, London, dated 1808.2

1. Maurice Shellim, Oil paintings of India and the East by Thomas Daniell RA 1749-1840 and William Daniell RA 1769-1837, 1979, p. 43
2.  Ibid., nos. TD20, TD43 and TD64