View of the Old Palace at Murshidabad (Agna Mahal), from the Louisa Parlby Album, Murshidabad, Company School, circa 1795-1810

Francesca Galloway, London.

Carlton Rochell, New York.

Francesca Galloway, The Louisa Parlby Album Watercolours from Murshidabad 1795–1803, London, 2017, cat. no. 6.

This illustration is from an album assembled in the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century in Bengal (probably at Maidapur near Murshidabad) by Louisa, the wife of Colonel James Parlby, who was an engineer in the service of the East India Company. Reflecting the British collecting tastes of the time, the album included studies of local flora and fauna, architectural and topographical views, Hindu and Muslim festivals, a series of Palladian mansions as well as the Nawab’s Palace in Murshidabad.

The painting depicts a view from the opposite side of the Bhagirathi of the old palace at Murshidabad (Agna Mahal). To the left are the backs of the Tripoli gate and Munny Begum’s mosque and to the right the European style ‘breakfast room’ and a small riverside mosque. Four of the Nawab’s state boats are on the river (a morpunkhi with peacock prow, a filchera with elephant prow and others with horse- and Makara prows), while a ferry boat is putting out from this side to cross the river.