GRINDLAY, Captain Robert Melville

A magnificent panoramic view of the Bore Ghaut (Bhor Ghat), the dramatic mountain pass through the Western Ghats connecting the Deccan Plateau with the Konkan coast near Bombay. Grindlay depicts the steep escarpments rising sharply above a winding stream, while small travelling figures in the foreground emphasise the grandeur and scale of the landscape.

Executed from sketches made by Grindlay during his travels through western India, the plate captures one of the principal routes linking Bombay with the interior before the advent of the railway. During the early nineteenth century, the ascent of the Bore Ghat was regarded as one of the most spectacular journeys in India, admired alike by military officers, travellers and artists. Grindlay’s careful observation combines topographical fidelity with the romantic aesthetics characteristic of the finest British landscape aquatints of the period.

Published as part of Scenery, Costumes and Architecture, chiefly on the Western Side of India, the view reflects Grindlay’s ambition to document India’s landscapes, architecture and peoples through large-format coloured plates of exceptional artistic quality. Today the work remains one of the landmark illustrated books on British India.