A royal barge on the Ganges

Murshidabad, circa 1810

Opaque watercolour on paper

29.2 by 17.9 cm. including black borders

The defeat of the Nawab of Bengal, Siraj ud-Daulah, by Robert Clive ("of India") at Plassy in 1757, signalled the end of independent rule in Bengal, and by the end of the century the dynasty had relinquished power in exchange for a handsome pension from the East India Company. Thus they continued to live in some style and their city of Murshidabad, lying on a tributary of the Ganges, was embellished with palaces, mosques, tombs and gardens.

This watercolour appears to depict the royal barge, with its distinctive elephant prow-terminal, a palm-fringed coast and a Bengali hut in the background. For an almost identical royal barge in a Bengal album of 1795-1810, see J.P. Losty, Imperial Past: India 1600-1800, London, 2011, pp.78-9.

Provenance

Hartnoll & Eyre, 1970s
Collection of the writer Mollie Panter-Downes (1906-97)