Oriental Scenery. Thomas & William Daniell. Published by London Free-School Press for Thomas and William Daniell. 1809-10, 1812. 6 parts in 3 volumes. 158 engraved plates comprising 144 views, 6 title-pages and 8 plans. Thomas Daniell, assisted by his nephew William, produced his best-known work Oriental Scenery (issued in six series) of Indian views making a total of 144 hand-coloured aquatint views of India. These represent cityscapes, including Calcutta and sublime views of mountains and waterfalls and formed the most extensive work of its kind. The Daniells, uncle and nephew, spent nine years traversing India, drawing and recording views and sites meticulously. On their return to London in 1794 they set about to produce one of the finest, most ambitious, and most influential series of aquatints: Oriental Scenery. Their classical style of composition and use of a camera obscura ensured an unrivalled accuracy, which in turn facilitated the work's influence on other spheres of European art. Thomas and William Daniell was a household name then as the Calcutta Zamindars collected their engravings and place them in the walls of their mansions. My father, Nirmal Chandra Kumar, the antiquarian, purchased this and added it to his collection. His friend, R P Gupta writes in his book, ‘Stan Kal Patra’ that Kumar offered the book to him for his collection but he refused as it was very expensive, even agreeing to take the cost over a year ….. if he had the book now he could have purchased a bungalow in Ballygunj by selling the same.
Oriental Scenery
