The New Buildings and Chouringhee [Chowringhee]
Artist and publisher Thomas Daniell British
Not on view
Plate 7 from Thomas Daniell's "Views of Calcutta" represents Chowringhee Road (now Jawaharlal Nehru Road), along the east side of the Maidan, an open area at the center of the city. In the late eighteenth century, substantial residences for Europeans were built along the road, which Daniell shows edged with a ditch to control flooding.
In 1784 Thomas Daniel obtained permission from the East India Company to travel to India to work as an engraver, assisted by his nephew William. The pair reached Calcutta in 1786 and soon began to issue the first topographical prints of the colonial capital. Twelve etched and aquatinted “Views of Calcutta” were completed by 1788, printed and hand-colored by Indian assistants. The images proved immensely popular in India and Europe, and helped to launch a vogue for Indian ornament and design in Britain.
