Indian Company School Delhi Gate, Agra Fort

An original early 19th-century watercolour painting, Indian Company School, Delhi Gate, Agra Fort.

A beautifully intricate Indian Company school miniature in ink and watercolour. This painting shows the monumental Dehli Gate at Agra Fort in Uttar Pradesh, with British flag flying. The profusely ornamented structure, a masterpiece of Akbar's time, was built between 1568 and 1569 to enhance the fort's security. The gate is elaborately decorated with stone carving in geometrical, floral and stylized design, carving in bold relief, brackets with elephant heads and stucco decoration on arched niches—fit for its purpose as the king's formal gate.

This painting is a fine example of an Indian Company miniature painting, produced for Western patrons in India in the 19th century, many of whom were working for the East India Company. It displays the striking hybrid techniques which led to the categorisation of the ‘Company’ style as a School. As an objective architectural elevation it uniquely combines scientific European rationalism with the attention to detail and intense colouring of the Mughal miniature tradition.

Provenance: From a Victorian collection of pictures associated with Maj-Gen Alexander Hadden Lindsay CB (1830–1887), an Indian Army officer. He served in the Bengal Horse Artillery and was a lieutenant during the Indian Mutiny 1857–8. He later served in the 2nd Afghan War and was awarded the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (CB). Lindsay was nephew of General Sir Alexander Lindsay KCB (1785–1872) and the collection evidences further connections with high ranking British officers in India, including Robert Cornelis Napier, 1st Baron Napier of Magdala GCB GCSI FRS (1810–1890) and 1st Baron Lawrence, GCB GCSI PC (1811–1879), who served as Viceroy of India from 1864 to 1869.

In watercolour with pen and ink. On wove paper.