Object Details
Culture
Delhi, India
Date
ca. 1816–1820
Medium
Gouache on paper, with separate cover page inscribed in script with ink, and another sheet supporting a pencil sketch of one of the prisoners
Dimensions
Part a (sheet supporting the gouache illustration): 7 7/8 × 12 5/8 inches (20 × 32.1 cm)
Part b (separate cover sheet, slightly irregular): 16 1/4 × 12 1/4 inches (41.3 × 31.1 cm)
Part c (additional, folding sheet, supporting the pencil sketch): 15 3/4 × 12 1/2 inches (40 × 31.8 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired through the George and Mary Rockwell Fund
Object
Number
2013.007 a-c
William Fraser (1784–1835) lived in Delhi as a civil servant working for the East India Company. A(…)
William Fraser (1784–1835) lived in Delhi as a civil servant working for the East India Company. Along with his brother James Fraser (1783–1856), who went to Calcutta to be an independent merchant, they are now perhaps best known for the compilations of drawings by Indian artists that they commissioned to record the local life of Delhi and its surroundings. Because of the ways that the Fraser brothers assimilated into Indian culture and society, both men were among the so-called “White Mughals,” British traders who became so enamored with India that they permanently settled there, adopting an Indian lifestyle and taking Indian wives.In this drawing, by one of the master artists who contributed to the albums (some of the artists also worked for the last Mughal emperors), two murderers in chains are depicted with extraordinary sensitivity and psychological intensity.
