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Buland Darwaza with Figure

Dr. John Murray

1860

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Impressionism Realism Late 19th Century

Dominant colour

Buland Darwaza with Figure is a 1860 by Dr. John Murray, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Dr. John Murray
When & what style?: 1860 · Impressionism
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

You see a huge sandstone gate with a single person standing in its shadow. The gate is the Buland Darwaza, the grand entrance to a mosque in India. John Murray wasn’t a full-time artist—he was a doctor in the British army. He took photos of India’s landmarks, but this work is a painting based on his photos. It’s rare to see a Westerner document Indian architecture this carefully in the 1800s. If you like this mix of travel and art, look up the technique impasto—it’s when paint is laid on thickly, giving texture to surfaces like stone.

The story of this work

Overview

This gateway is the entrance to the Great Mosque at Fatehpur Sikri, not far from where John Murray was stationed for half of his four decades in India. Murray was by profession a doctor in the army of the East India Company, a British trading company that ruled much of India from 1757–1858. He took up photography in 1849 and made it his personal mission to photograph the many famous buildings in the region.