Page 241 - Eye of the beholder

VIEW TAKEN ON THE ESPLANADE CALCUTTA: JANUARY-FEBRUARY 1797
At the end of the 18th century Calcutta had become a dignified city with a handsome ensemble of magnificent buildings and villas. It was equally a prosperous and flourishing city with beautiful public buildings and large private houses built in the Palladian manner. The grandest buildings were around the Maidan, a great open space created around the second Fort William begun in 1757. The Esplanade was on the Maidan’s north side from where a gracious walkway led to Chandpal Ghat on the Hooghly River, the official landing place in Calcutta where boats could be seen arriving. The grandest buildings flanked the Maidan, a great open space where the city’s inhabitants socialized and it was the site of the principal public buildings including Government House and the Supreme Court, which led to,
This painting is a coloured aquatint that finds its description in the second set of Thomas and William Daniell's book ‘Oriental Scenery’ that offers a beautiful view of the Esplanade. The wide stretch of the river was lively with variety of ships from fishing boats to Great Indiamen. The works produced by the Daniells’ were multiplied through the process of printmaking which made it economical viable for them. Most of their water colour paintings were translated through the medium of aquatint, which enabled maintenance of freshness of vision and spontaneity of brush work and subtle tonalities.
It was through the medium of print making that the Daniell’s were successful in popularizing the vast scenic Indian landscape of mountains, waterfalls and coastlines as well as its diverse historical monuments. Their on the spot sketches and spontaneous water colours were not only developed into oil paintings but were reproduced as aquatints in the print medium.
The medium of print making is as fascinating as it is intriguing. The versatility as well as certain limitation it offers, allows for a wide range of subjects to be represented pictorially. It included historical episodes, naval and military events, customs, costumes, social life, flora and fauna, field sports and portraiture. In addition there are topographical views covering architecture and archaeology. By definition, a print is an image that has been produced by a mechanical means, which enables it to be multiplied. Such techniques range from the simple lino cut through the more complex hand processes of engraving and lithography to the most sophisticated type of photomechanical colour printing invented to date. A distinction is normally made in the definition of a print; between the hand techniques and the mechanical processes, the latter developed and generally replaced the former for commercial purposes from the second half of the nineteenth century onwards. Every print produced by the non mechanical process is classified as
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