1866
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Delhi. The Emperor's Palace. Interior of Dewani in Private Hall is a 1866 by Samuel Bourne, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a long, arched hall with red stone walls and white marble floors. Sunlight streams through open doorways, lighting up the empty space. This photo was taken in the 1860s, before modern restorations. It shows the palace exactly as it was when British photographers first documented India. The quiet details—like the worn stone and the play of light—give us a rare look at history. For more early photos of India, check out the work of 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.
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