Taj Mahal at Sunset

Charles W. Bartlett’s Sunset at Taj Mahal is a reminder of how close the Yamuna once flowed next to the monument in Agra, and how clean the river was. The bankside view offers us a vignette of the Taj from the side hidden behind shrubs and the sandstone enclosure that surrounds it, with pavilions at each corner. Bartlett’s choice of the view may have had to do with offering a perspective different from that of other artists. The deliberate avoidance of architectural detailing in favour of the structural mass was the artist’s unique way of creating prints in a signature style based on his own love of Japanese prints.