1866
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Delhi. Great Arch and Iron Pillar Near the Kootub Minar, Ruin of Old Delhi is a 1866 by Samuel Bourne, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a black-and-white photo of a crumbling stone arch and a tall iron pillar next to the Qutub Minar in Delhi. The arch frames the scene like a window, and the pillar stands straight, untouched by time. This photo was taken in the 1860s, before the site was restored. It’s one of the earliest images of these ruins, showing them just as they were when the British first documented them. The iron pillar, over a thousand years old, hasn’t rusted—a mystery still unsolved. To see more early photos of India’s landmarks, look up Samuel Bourne (British, 1834–1912).
The 50 images in this album, all taken in the 1860s, move from the hill towns of the Himalayas down to cities including Lahore (now in Pakistan), Delhi, Lucknow, Agra, Benares (now Varansi), and Calcutta (now Kolkata). Architectural studies of major monuments offer valuable historical records of what sites such as the Taj Mahal and the imperial mosque of the Mughal emperors in Delhi looked like before twentieth-century restorations.
Samuel Bourne, the author of most the images in this album, was a banker in England before he moved to India to become a professional photographer.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Samuel Bourne was a British photographer known for his prolific seven years' work in India, from 1863 to 1870.
See the richer artist page
