An Illustrated Scroll depicting the Hussainabad Imambara Complex, India, Company School, Lucknow, first half 19th century

Watercolour on paper in scroll form, backed with cloth, rolled around a wooden spindle, depicting various buildings within the Hussainabad Imambara complex, including private houses, caravanserai, various gateways, the mosque and mausolea, identification inscriptions above and below the painting in Urdu and English, various figures depicted in the foreground including native characters, elephants, oxen, rickshaws, as well as Europeans on horseback

Lt. Colonel Sleeman

In reasonably good overall condition, creases throughout and some areas slightly rubbed, some abrasions to edges of paper, worsening towards end of scroll, as viewed.
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The Great Hussainabad Imambara (also known as the Chhota Imambara), is a large and impressive monument in Lucknow, built by Muhammad 'Ali Shah, the third Nawab of Avadh, in 1837. It contains the tombs of Muhammad 'Ali Shah (part of the reason behind its original design) and those of other members of his family. A lithographed view of the impressive architecture was produced by Edmund Walker after David Scott Dodgson (who described the Imambara as "the architectural gem of Lucknow") in 1860 (see P Godrej and P. Rohatgi, Scenic Splendours, India Through the Printed Image, London, 1989, pp.72, 78-78 and 150, pl.15).

As illustrated in the present scroll, the building housing Muhammad 'Ali Shah's tomb is flanked by two miniature versions of the Taj Mahal at Agra, one of which contains the tomb of Muhammad 'Ali Shah's daughter, and the other her husband's. A further Company School Illustration of The Great Imambara, by a Calcutta artist circa 1798-1804, is among a group of paintings in the India Office Library (Add.Or.1131-1146, see Archer 1972, pp.78-79, no.44xvi).