Description
About the Book The author reveals that he received, somewhat unexpectedly, a commission to paint a picture for the Indian Government, as a present to her Majesty the Queen on the occasion of the assumption of the title of Empress of India. The subject was to be the Imperial Assemblage of Delhi. He had to make his arrangements at once, for he was obliged to leave England early in November, so that he might be sure of reaching Delhi before Christmas. Such a commission would naturally fill the mind of an artist with anxiety, not so much from the magnitude of the picture to be produced as from the vast amount of necessary memoranda which would have to be collected from a country artistically unknown. The time required for this preliminary labour was most uncertain, and the climate and its evil effects on the constitution of a person not injured to it were much to be dreaded. To many artists the latter consideration would have caused much apprehension, but he had the advantage of belonging to what is called an Indian family.
