Hindu Temple at Agouree, on the Rover Soane, Bihar
By Thomas Daniell
Print, aquatint
1795

This picturesque scene has a great banyan tree in the foreground, its twisted branches and roots spreading far and wide across the landscape. Through the branches the viewer can see a groupd of Hindu temples. Underneath the tree and in the bottom left corner of the print there are four figures.

This is typical of the picturesque compositions procuded by Thomas and Willaim Daniell. In his journal William Daniell noted that Agori, on the River Son "is a place of worship of the greatest antiquity, which is obvious from the fragments of sculptured idols frequently to be met with there. The village at present is not very considerable"

Thomas and his young nephew William produced a visual record of India that surpassed the work of any other artists of the period. Their series of 144 hand-coloured aquatints published between 1795 and 1808 were an instant commercial success in Britain, greatly increasing knowledge of India.

The Daniells arrived in Calcutta in 1786 and set up a printing studio. Their first set of prints depicted the city and the profits from these financed their travels across India. Aware of the success of artist, William Hodges, they followed in his footsteps, travelling through much of north India and then up to the Himalayas. Three years later in 1791, they returned to Calcutta with 150 completed oil paintings. In 1792, a further eight month tour of South India resulted in some of their finest works.

The Daniells usually worked together, with William drawing the outlines with the aid of a camera obsucra, an optical device used to project an image onto paper which the artist could then trace, and Thomas adding the tonal washes and finishing touches.

In his journal William noted that Agori, on the River Son "is a place of worship of the greatest antiquity, which is obvious from the fragments of sculptured idols frequently to be met with there. The village at present is not very considerable"

This is another successful picturesque composition in which ancient temples are viewed through the twisted roots of the great banyan tree and the river is just visible in the distance.

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