View from the Cave, Elephanta Temple, India
View from the Cave, Elephanta Temple, India
View from the Cave, Elephanta Temple, IndiaWatercolour over traces of pencil heightened with touches of bodycolour12.8 by 21.6 cm., 5 by 8 ½ in.This watercolour dates from 1833-34 and is based on an on-the-spot sketch by Commander Robert Elliot, R.N. (1790-1849). Elliot was a naval officer and his sketches in India and the Far East from 1822-24 were copied by professional artists such as Cotman, Cox, Purser, Prout, Allom, Stanfield and Boys and published as engravings in `Views in India, China, and on the Shores of the Red Sea' in 1834/35. This watercolour was not in fact engraved but a watercolour by William Purser entitled `Entrance of the Cave Temple of Elephanta' was. A view by Cotman of `Perawa, Malawa' was engraved for the book however and the original watercolour which is slightly smaller than the present work is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (8-1875). Another unused Indian view by Cotman, `The Tomb of Hyder Ali Khan, Rajah of Mysore' is in the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston.We are grateful to Tim Wilcox for confirming the attribution to Cotman.){kind=link}
John Sell Cotman (1782-1842)
View from the Cave, Elephanta Temple, India
Watercolour over traces of pencil heightened with touches of bodycolour
12.8 by 21.6 cm., 5 by 8 ½ in.
This watercolour dates from 1833-34 and is based on an on-the-spot sketch by Commander Robert Elliot, R.N. (1790-1849). Elliot was a naval officer and his sketches in India and the Far East from 1822-24 were copied by professional artists such as Cotman, Cox, Purser, Prout, Allom, Stanfield and Boys and published as engravings in `Views in India, China, and on the Shores of the Red Sea' in 1834/35.
This watercolour was not in fact engraved but a watercolour by William Purser entitled `Entrance of the Cave Temple of Elephanta' was. A view by Cotman of `Perawa, Malawa' was engraved for the book however and the original watercolour which is slightly smaller than the present work is in the Victoria and Albert Museum (8-1875). Another unused Indian view by Cotman, `The Tomb of Hyder Ali Khan, Rajah of Mysore' is in the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, Preston.
We are grateful to Tim Wilcox for confirming the attribution to Cotman.