Anon. Taj Mahal, Agra, India

An original late 19th-century watercolour painting – Taj Mahal, Agra, India.

An interesting sketch showing a rear view of the Taj Mahal from the east. The vantage point records the expansive layout of the temple complex and its iconic skyline, giving prominence to the vegetation along the banks of the Yamuna river and a sense of the temple within the natural landscape. There is also a hint of the 'overgrown' trees outside the mausoleum, which were cut down by Lord Curzon in 1903 in order to return the garden to its original design and fulfil a more formal British garden aesthetic.

The impressionistic execution of the sketch is also a departure from many depictions of the Taj Mahal that focus on the building's famous order and symmetry.

The painting is unsigned and the artist is unknown. A former framing label ascribed it to the circle of Sir Charles D'Oyly (1781–1845), but it seems later than D'Oyly's immediate circle. The style more resembles the looser work of watercolourist William Carpenter (1818–1899), who travelled in India for six or seven years in the 1850s painting Indian scenes, people and life.

In watercolour with graphite.