Page 260 - Eye of the beholder

A detailed record of the journey can be reconstructed based on the journal maintained by William Daniell, and the dates and inscriptions recorded on the backs of the sketches/paintings they prepared during their journey. These sketches were later on worked up into finished wash paintings or watercolors. Some of the more interesting scenes were later also worked up into full scale oil paintings, sometime in multiple copies. Only a subset of their original drawings therefore eventually ended up being represented as aquatints and published later on. From the landmark study done by Mildred Archer using all the published aquatints to trace the itinery of the Daniells, we see that they arrived in Kolar on 25th April 1792. Based on evidence from their journals, it is known that they passed through Perumbur on 11th April and subsequently through Kanchipuram and Vellore before reaching the area around the Baramahal hills on the 20th April. At all these places, and other non-descript places on the road, the Daniells must have stopped to make sketches which were later worked up into paintings. It is just that none of them were later made their way into the books as aquatints. These paintings – either as monochrome washes or complete watercolors- have dispersed all over the world and are currently in various private and institutional collections. The British Library in London, in particular owns a large number of these paintings. A substantial number of them were also owned by the Pacific & Orient Steam Navigation Company. Fifty watercolors from the P&O collection were exhibited by the Smithsonian Institution in the USA in the 1960s, and were cataloged by them. The P&O collection was auctioned off in September 2000 by Christies in London. Since the dispersal of the collection, the whereabouts of these individual watercolors are no longer available in the public domain.
The first known painting by the Daniells that they executed after their departure form Madras on the 9th April 1792 was done in Kolar on 25th April 1792 (Figure 6). This painting appears as the 14th aquatint of the book 5 of oriental scenery (Antiquities of India) under the following title: An antique reservoir near Kolar, in the Mysore. The accompanying Journal entry says ‘This stone cistern, which is very singular in its form and in its style of decoration was evidently constructed for the purpose of containing water. It is situated near the high road, not far from Colar’. Neither the comprehensive catalog of Daniell paintings by Maurice Shellim, nor the catalog of the holdings of the P&O company contain any paintings done during their journey between Madras and Kolar. Our painting in discussion here therefore is important because it is a new discovery and sheds new light on a part of this very important journey that was not previously known.
The picture is a pencil & watercolor composition on paper (12.5 inches by 15.5 inches ; 30.8 by 39.7 cms ) with a provenance from Abott & Holder (Figure 8). The title and the date appear at the back of the picture in the artists own handwriting, as is to be expected in this case. In running script on the back of the painting in the artists own handwriting, the title of the picture says ‘At Mugwaukul’, and is dated 17th September 1792.
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