These early 19th century views
These early 19th century views of India are magical A selection of paintings by Sita Ram, who accompanied Lord Hastings on his voyage up the Ganga in 1814. The name of Sita Ram is familiar to admirers of later Indian painting as the artist of two albums of drawings of views on the Ganges in Bengal and Bihar and of the monuments of Agra which were sold in London in 1974 and subsequently dispersed. They were sold anonymously without provenance, and it so happened that none of the inscriptions mentions the patron. Among the paintings in these two dispersed albums are the famous views of the Taj Mahal at different times of day and night, and views of sights on the river between Murshidabad and Patna which were so familiar to travellers in early 19th-century India… The Great Gola on the Maidan at Bankipore. When the first two albums of his work appeared in 1974, Sita Ram was at once recognised as a major artist of the period, who far transcends the limitations of most oth...