Gate of the Hoosseinabad Bazar, Lucknow

1866

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Dominant colour

Gate of the Hoosseinabad Bazar, Lucknow is a 1866 by Louis-Théophile Marie Rousselet, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Louis-Théophile Marie Rousselet
When & what style?: 1866 · Impressionism
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

A tall, arched gateway stands in bright sunlight, its red bricks and white trim framing a busy street. People, carts, and horses fill the scene, while shadows stretch long across the ground. Rousselet drew this while traveling in India, but he wasn’t happy with his sketches. So he learned photography there and started taking pictures instead. The mix of drawing and photography was still new in the 1860s. To see more of his India travels, look up *Louis-Théophile Marie Rousselet (French, 1845–1929)*.

The story of this work

Overview

Concerned that his drawings did not do justice to the splendor of India’s monuments, Rousselet learned photography in India that year, a remarkable accomplishment. He proved to be a talented photographer with a sophisticated sense of composition. The scenes in this volume sweep across sites of Sultanate, Rajput, and Mughal power in northern India, from the sacred Hindu city of Varanasi on the Ganges River to Alwar in Rajasthan. Also included are several scenes of industry and portraits of Indian rulers.