Mosque of Kootub, Delhi

1866

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Dominant colour

Mosque of Kootub, Delhi 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

You see a quiet courtyard of the Qutub Mosque in Delhi, sunlight raking across old stone arches and a single palm tree. Rousselet drew this while traveling India in the 1860s. He worried his sketches weren’t enough, so he taught himself photography there—unusual for a French traveler at the time. The picture feels like a pause between two worlds: the crumbling Mughal past and the busy British present. Look up the subject “france, 19th century” to see how other French artists pictured faraway places.

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.