WD4304

Drawings on tracing paper, laid down in an album (ff.1-24) with paper covers.

Album 55 by 37.5 cm.

Cover inscribed in ink over pencil: ‘Outline Pen & Ink Sketches Calcutta & Vicinity - by Coll. G.F. White’. Notes on some of the Calcutta drawings suggest White had the preparation of a panorama in mind. Some show the same subjects as Sir Charles D’Oyly’s ‘Views of Calcutta and its Environs’, London, 1848, but with slightly different proportions of image size. The drawings were probably made using a ‘camera lucida’ with figures added from studies in sketchbooks. On White’s return to England he may have been involved in work on the ‘Views of Calcutta’, either working up some of the finished drawings for the plates from sketches by D’Oyly, or contributing drawings of his own.

f.1 ‘Indian Nautch Girls’.

Pencil; 28 by 43 cm.

Note: See ‘A Benares Nautch, 1826’, by D’Oyly after James Prinsep in ‘Selections from the early Experiment of the Bahar Amateur Lithographic Press’. The White drawing has three extra figures.

f.2 The ‘iwan’ of the Jami‘ Masjid at Delhi.

Inscribed: ‘Jamma Musjid Delhi 1843’.

Pencil with white chalk; 28.5 by 43.5 cm.

f.3 View of the bathing ghats at Benares from the west.

Inscribed: ‘Chutoor Sustie Ghaut fm. Panree Ghaut Benares’.

Pencil; 28 by 43 cm.

f.4 View of the bathing ghats at Benares from the east.

Inscribed: ‘Raj Munshul Ghaut. Benares City’.

Pencil; 27.5 by 43 cm.

f.5 Ghat, Benares.

Inscribed: ‘Raj Rajah Juhwurnee Lallatur - Benares City’.

Pencil; 27.5 by 43.5 cm

f.6 ‘Sacred Pepul Tree at Howra opposite Calcutta. View on the Serampore Road’.

Pencil; 28 by 43 cm.

Note: See D’Oyly’s ‘Views of Calcutta’, plate 18, ‘View in the Serampore Road’. The drawing differs in some details from the plate and has notes on tone, eg ‘light’ in top right corner, ‘in shade’ and ‘MD’ in foreground.

f.7 ‘View in the Village of Sheebpore. Near the Bishop’s College’, with notes on tones.

Pencil; 27.5 by 43.5 cm.

Note: See D’Oyly’s ‘Views of Calcutta’, plate 14, ‘View in the village of Sheebpore’. The tower in the background is one of those of Bishop’s College.

f.8 ‘View near Kidderpore Bridge’, with notes, ‘dark & bold, lt, shade’ etc.

Pencil; 28 by 43.5 cm.

f.9 ‘Hindoo Temple nr. the Strand Road Calcutta. Soobut seer Kallee’, with notes ‘shade, grass shaded’, etc.

Pencil; 28 by 43.5 cm.

Note: See D’Oyly’s ‘Views of Calcutta’, plate 25, ‘Hindoo Temple near the Strand Road’.

f.10 ‘Mosque at Bowannypoor’.

Pencil; 28 by 43.5 cm.

Note: See D’Oyly’s ‘Views of Calcutta’, plate 9, ‘Mosque at Borranypore’. The skyline is considerably altered in the plate.

f.11 The colonnade at the Baboo Ghat, with Fort William and St. Peter’s Church in the distance. Figure and animal studies in the sky area.

Inscribed on album page: ‘No.1. Commencing on the Left Hand’.

Pencil; 27.5 by 43.5 cm.

f.12 ‘East Gate. Govt House Calcutta’.

Pencil; 28 by 43.5 cm.

Note: See D’Oyly’s ‘Views of Calcutta’, frontispiece, which is smaller than the drawing, has different groups of figures and omits the north-east wing on the right hand side of the drawing.

f.13 ‘View in Clive St. Calcutta’ with notes on tones.

Note: See D’Oyly’s ‘Views of Calcutta’, plate 13, ‘View in Clive St’. The figures differ from those in the drawing.

f.14 ‘View in Barrackpore Park. Women & Cows-drinking’, and on album page: ‘No.9’.

Pencil; 28.5 by 43 cm.

Note: Women and cows are not featured in the drawing. The two elephants with howdahs beneath a great tree appear in plate 17 of D’Oyly’s ‘Views of Calcutta’, see the following drawing.

f.15 ‘Entrance to Barrackpore Park’, and on album page: ‘No.8’.

Pencil; 27.5 by 43 cm.

Note: See D’Oyly’s ‘Views of Calcutta’, plate 17, a much smaller version of the drawing but with additional figures.

f.16 Moulmein, Burma.

Inscribed: ‘View fr. the Summit of the Gt. Burmese Pagoda - with part of a Ponghee House nr. the Pagoda’, and on album page: ‘No.7. NB. This and Nos 8-9 & 10 - one or all might be introduced in sequence to No. 7’.

Pencil; 28 by 43 cm.

f.17 ‘Burmese Musicians & Dancers & View from Commissioner’s House at Moulmein’, and on album page: ‘No.6 following to the Right of No.3’.

Pencil; 26.5 by 42.5 cm.

f.18 ‘Great Burmese Pagoda at Moulmein’, and on album page: ‘No.7 following to the Right of No.6’.

Pencil; 28 by 41.5 cm.

Note: The numbering is confusing. This would appear to follow f.16.

f.19 ‘View of Mud Docks for River Sloops at Sulkea’, and on album page: ‘Dry Docks at Howra opposite Calcutta - Native Cargo. Sloops. No.10. Might Conclude the Panorama - perhaps 27?’, with notes on tones, ‘hulls of shipping dark’ etc.

Pencil; 27 by 42 cm.

f.20 Custom House Wharf, Calcutta.

Inscribed on album page: ‘No.2. Continued from No.1 to the Right’.

Pencil; 28 by 42.5 cm.

Note: See Doyly’s ‘Views of Calcutta’, plate 5, ‘Custom House Wharf’.

f.21 ‘Calcutta from the Entrance to the Water Gate, Fort William’, and on the album page: ‘No.4. The River Portion of this View or No.5 might be introduced on the left of View No.3 which is the principal one’.

Note: See D’Oyly’s ‘Views of Calcutta’, plate 12, ‘General View of Calcutta, from the Entrance to the Water Gate of Fort William’, which is narrower than the drawing, and has the figures closer together.

f.22 ‘Town & Port of Calcutta from the New Course’ and on album page: ‘No.5’.

Pencil; 24 by 66 cm.

Note: See D’Oyly’s ‘Views of Calcutta’, plate 6, ‘Town and Port of Calcutta’.

f.23 ‘View of Calcutta from the Old Course’, and on album page: ‘No.3. Continued from No.2 to the Right introducing also to the left the River as seen in No.4 or No.5’.

Pencil; 25.5 by 85 cm.

f.24 ‘View of Calcutta from the Door of St Andrew’s Library’. A drawing of a carriage in top right corner.

Pencil; 25 by 84.5 cm.

Note: See D’Oyly’s ‘Views of Calcutta’, plate 2, ‘Government House from St. Andrew’s Library’, a reduced version of the drawing.