A Map of Part of Bengal and Bahar with the Provinces of Benaras, Allahabad, Oude and Agra

William Hodges

William Hodges (1744-97) holds a unique position as a pioneer. He reached India in 1780 to start to remedy Europe’s visual ignorance of India and once here, he acquired an illustrious patron, Britain’s first Governor General in India, Warren Hastings, to travel with him. For three years, sometimes with Hastings and sometimes alone, Hodges explored cities and sacred sites throughout northern India, from Calcutta to Agra. Like some of the artists who followed him, once he returned home, Hodges published a series of prints, based on the sketches he had made on the spot, to disseminate his work as widely as possible. The forty-eight aquatints of his Select Views in India, issued in 1785-88, gave European audiences their first real glimpses of Indian architecture and landscape.