WD4279

Temple of Kailasanatha at Ellora near Aurangabad, viewed from the south looking north past the monolithic pillar towards the bridge connecting the Nandi shrine with the main temple.

Inscribed indistinctly: ‘.... ch Kylas. Principal .... R. Grindlay’; 1810 watermark.

Water-colour; 46 by 58.5 cm.

Purchased 1992.

Note: See Grindlay’s ‘Scenery, costume and architecture chiefly on the western side of India’, London, 1826 and 1830. The drawing is the original reproduced as ‘Great Excavated Temple at Ellora. Drawn on the spot for the Honble Lady Wood by Capt. Grindlay 1813’, engraved by G. Hunt and G. Rawle as plate 12 in vol.I of the series. The aquatint is smaller than the drawing

A letter by Grindlay of 1865 together with an extract quoted from his journal for 1813 in the Grindlay Album (WD4317, f.1c) sheds light on Grindlay’s journey of that year with Lady Hood across India and on this particular drawing: ‘I was then A.D.C. to General Sir Even Nepean who kindly permitted me to accept the tempting proposal from Lady Hood that I should accompany her on an excursion across India visiting M. Elphinstone at Poonah, & then by Aurangabad & Ellora to Sir Henry Russell at Hyderabad. We spent two delightful months visiting with Mountstuart Elphinstone all that was interesting around Poonah. Our early mornings were occupied with travelling, hunting & hawking (M. Elphinstone’s favourite sport in which he excelled). The heat of the day was passed in the large saloon tent where M. Elphinstone would read aloud ... During these lectures, I was busy working up sketches I had made for Lady Hood, at her side & under her advice - one of them the ‘Kylas’ of the Ellora group took me six days to outline: the original drawing is I think still at Brahau Castle.’