6
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Ruins of the Old Fort, Calcutta is a 6 by George Chinnery, a Romanticism work, depicting Ruins, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
This shows old bricks and crumbling walls covered in vines. Pencil lines are firm but light, like the artist sketched fast before the light changed. The arches still stand, but plants creep through every crack. The British left this fort after 1757, yet bits of it stayed standing for decades. It’s a quiet record of time eating away at man-made things. You can almost feel the humidity in the lines. Compare this to how Chinnery, George drew the same mood in other ruins.
The drawing depicts the decayed masonry of the first Fort William, including surviving arches and windows, surrounded by overgrowth; the fort had been abandoned by the British in 1757, though remnants persisted for over a century. It is part of an album containing 175 sketches made in China and India. The album was bequeathed in 1928 by James Orange and originally included 93 drawings by George Chinnery, who worked primarily in India and China from 1802 until his death in 1852.
Read the full account in the museum source.
George Chinnery (Chinese: 錢納利; 5 January 1774 – 30 May 1852) was an English painter who spent most of his life in Asia, especially India and southern China.
See the richer artist page
