The King's Temples, Ulwur

1866

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Dominant colour

The King's Temples, Ulwur 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 stone temple, half-hidden by trees, its steps worn smooth by centuries of bare feet. Rousselet drew this while traveling through India in the 1860s. He later learned photography there, frustrated that his sketches couldn’t hold the light the way a camera could. This image is one of many he made of India’s old places—mosques, palaces, and riverside shrines. If you like these quiet corners of history, look up *The Cleveland Museum of Art*.

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.