William Hodges

Select Views in India, a two-volume set of 48 aquatints, was issued in 12 equal parts between 1785 and 1788. Hodge executed these drawings while in India as the guest of Warren Hastings, the first governor-general of India. This work, with its spectacular scenes of India, caused a sensation, as nothing on this scale had been published previously. The text gives a brief history of each site, along with an account of events that occurred in each place. Both volumes were enthusiastically received as they offered a look at unfamiliar, faraway lands. Hodges’ expressive and skilled draughtsmanship played no small role in boosting their popularity. The panoramic vistas, unlike the Europe Hodges was familiar with, and the strong contrasts between sun and shadow were appealing at the time. Hodges “conveyed the towering bulk of many Indian monuments by exaggerated proportions and foreshortened perspective. The countryside is shown rough with stunted scrub and windswept trees; paint is vigorously applied … Here was a new and fresh approach to the Indian scene, viewing it in the ‘picturesque’ taste and presenting novel material, especially architecture, to the British public in a new manner.” (India Observed, accessed online ) The first four plates in the set were probably published by Hodges, the next 24 were published by John Wells (plates 5 to 28), and the rest by J Grives. The famed British aquatint master, Thomas Daniell, mastered the art of aquatint hoping to emulate Hodge’s commercial success.

Select Views in India drawn on the spot in the years 1780, 1781, 1782 and 1783 and executed in aquatint