An English landscape painter, Thomas Daniell worked on Orientalist themes during his time in India with his artist nephew, William Daniell. They travelled extensively throughout the region and published several series of aquatints depicting the country. The aquatints in this lot are likely part of the “Oriental Scenery” series, which represents the single largest and most impressive project by English artists to depict Indian architecture and landscape. The aquatints were issued in pairs between March 1795 and December 1808. Subscribers who purchased all of them could assemble them into six volumes, each with 24 prints, making a total of 144. These prints are part of prestigious museum collections globally, including the Royal Academy of Arts and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Writers’ Buildings, Calcutta, 1798: The Writers’ Building, designed by Thomas Lyon in 1780, was intended to house the junior clerks of the East India Company. The originally plain façade was later adorned with embellishments added a century afterward. In the foreground, a monument was erected by John Zephaniah Holwell, a survivor of the notorious Black Hole of 1756, as a tribute to those who lost their lives.
The Baolee at Ramnagur, 1803: When the Daniells visited, this baolee, or step-well, had recently been built by Raja Chait Singh for public use near his palace in Ramnagar, at the southern end of Varanasi.