Lot 103: JULES SCHAUMBURG FL.1861 THE HOOGHLY RIVER, CALCUTTA, 1869

78 by 115 cm. (30¾ by 45¼ in.)

Signed and dated 'Jules Schaumburg 1869' lower left

Oil on canvas

NOTE

Jules Henri Jean Schaumburg was born in Antwerp and trained there, at the Academy of Fine Arts. In the 1860s he went to India where he toured the central and northern regions for four years, accompanied by the French traveller and writer, Louis Rousselet, who published an account of the journey (see Rousselet, L., India and its Native Princes, London, 1876). Schaumburg settled in Calcutta where he divided his time between painting and working at the Geological Survey of India and, later, at the Indian Museum. In 1874 he was elected associate member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal. He died suddenly of a fever in 1886 and is buried in Park Street Cemetry, Calcutta.

This is one of the finest examples of the relatively undiscovered painter's work and was executed about a year after he arrived in Calcutta. The large canvas provides a fascinating record of the city and its river life at the watershed between the rule of the East India Company and the Victorian Raj.

The main landmarks are (from left to right): The General Post Office with its large dome (1868), the spire of St. John's Church (1787), just to the right of the East Indiaman, the Town Hall (1813), Government House (1802) and the edge of Eden Gardens on the right.