WD4147

Four notebooks containing the journals of the artist William Daniell, written while travelling in India with his uncle Thomas Daniell (1749-1840), containing details of the their travels and their work. The journals contain copious references to the working methods and drawings of both artists (William being at the beginning just a tyro). Other information of interest concerns the details of travelling itself, both by boat and overland, and their meetings with Mahadji Sindhia (February 1st-3rd, 1789), the ongoing wars in Garhwal (April 1789), their stay in Lucknow with Claude Martin (in July 1790), and their journey into Mysore in the wake of Cornwallis’s army (April-May 1792). Only four of the notebooks are extant:

(1) numbered 1 and entitled W Daniells Journal from August 29th 1788 to May 19 1789; notebook covered in contemporary blue linen; 29.5 by 21 cm; ff. 82; sketches of hills and an elephant in pencil on front flyleaves, and of the Hathi Minar at Fatehpur Sikri (in pencil) and of a boat (in ink) on the rear flyleaf. From Calcutta to Bisauli.

(2) numbered 3 and entitled W Daniells Journal July 8th 1789 to Jany 30th 1790; notebook covered in contemporary marbled paper; 31 by 20 cm; ff. 46; figure studies in ink on inside cover. From Lucknow to the Guptesvar caves via Allahabad, Varanasi and Bijaigarh.

(3) numbered 6 and dated: March 10 to 29 1792; notebook sewn in mid-19th century paper covers; 27.5 by 19.5 cm; ff. 5. From Calcutta to Madras by sea.

(4) numbered 7 and dated April 9 to July 12 1792; notebook in contemporary marbled covers; 22 by 17 cm; ff. 45. From Madras to Madurai via Bangalore.

Provenance: William Daniell; Sir Henry Russell, Swallowfield Park, and by descent; Viscount Rothermere 1973; Christie’s 17 June 1998, lot 44; The Lawrie Group plc; purchased 2001 with the assistance of the Friends of the National Libraries and of the Friends of the British Library.

Published (excerpts only) by Martin Hardie and Muriel Clayton, in Walker’s Quarterly, nos. 35-36, London, 1932. Also J.P. Losty, ‘A Picturesque Voyage? William Daniell’s Journal and the Daniells’ Vision of India’, The British Library, London, 2006.