FRASER, James Baillie (1783–1856)

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A superb early nineteenth-century panorama of Loll Bazaar (modern Lalbazar), seen from the Circular Road in Calcutta. Fraser presents the city not merely through its architecture but as a remarkably animated urban environment: pedestrians fill the road, vendors gather beneath temporary structures, bullock carts and livestock occupy the foreground, and rows of modest buildings contrast with the prominent European-style structures beyond.

The Portuguese Chapel forms the architectural focus toward the centre of the composition. Contemporary descriptive material associated with Fraser’s series identifies the church as Our Lady of Dolours, begun in 1809 and consecrated the following year. It stood where the eastern end of Loll Bazaar met the Circular Road.

Fraser’s treatment is particularly effective because the architecture never overwhelms the human activity. The extensive open sky, low horizon and scattered figures give an unusually strong impression of the scale and character of Calcutta’s streets during the 1820s.

James Baillie Fraser was a Scottish traveller, writer and amateur artist whose Indian drawings produced some of the most accomplished topographical views of the early nineteenth century.

His Views of Calcutta and its Environs, published in London in 1824–26, is regarded as one of the major aquatint plate books devoted to colonial Calcutta. Fraser supplied the original drawings, which were translated into aquatint by accomplished professional engravers including Robert Havell Jr. and F. C. Lewis.”

Reference: Fraser, James Baillie. Views of Calcutta and its Environs. London, 1824–26. Abbey, J. R. Travel in Aquatint and Lithography, 1770–1860 — Fraser’s Indian plate books are important entries in the standard bibliography of British colour-plate travel books.