Views of Calcutta and its Environs (Bicentenary Edition: Celebrating 200 years of a Landmark Visual Record of Calcutta)

Contents: Publisher’s Note. Acknowledgements. Note on the Plates. Map: Plan of Calcutta, engraved by M.W. Woollaston, 1825. Introduction: The Work and Its Moment – Vikas Arya. Plates 1. A View of Chandpal Ghat. 2. A View of Esplanade Row, from the Chouringhee Road. 3. A View of Government House, from the Eastward. 4. A View of the Botanic Garden House and Reach. 5. A View of Esplanade Row, from the Reservoir at Chandpal Ghat. 6. A View of Writers Buildings, from the Monument at the West End. 7. A View of the Opposite or Sulkhea Side, from the Respondentia Walk with a North-wester coming on. 8. A View of Tank Square from the West. 9. A View of Government House, from the Court House Street,  taken from the House of Johnson & Co. 10. A View of Barrackpore House, with the Reach of the River. 11. A View of the Town Hall. 12. A View of the Scotch Church, from the Gate of Tank Square. 13. View of St. Andrew’s Church, from Mission Row. 14. View of Court House Street, from near the South Eastern Gate of Government House. 15. View of Calcutta from the Glacis of Fort William. 16. View of the Loll Bazaar, from opposite the House of John Palmer Esq. 17. View of the Loll Bazaar and Portuguese Chapel, from the Circular Road. 18. A View of the River, Shipping, and Town, from near Smiths Dock. 19. View of St. John’s Cathedral. 20. A View of Calcutta, from a Point opposite to Kidderpore. 21. A View of Serampore, from the Park at Barrackpore. 22. A View of the West Side of Tank Square. 23. A View of the Black Pagoda, on the Chitpore Road. 24. A View in the Bazaar, leading to the Chitpore Road. Appendix: Chronology of Calcutta: 1690–1911.

First published between 1824 and 1826, Views of Calcutta and Its Environs by James Baillie Fraser stands among the most important visual records of early nineteenth-century India. Based on drawings executed in Calcutta between 1819 and 1820, the series captures the city at a decisive moment in its transformation into the capital of British power in the East. This bicentenary edition marks two hundred years since the appearance of Fraser’s celebrated work.

Bringing together image and text, this edition restores to a considerable extent the original descriptive letterpress that has often been lost in surviving copies. The present volume situates Fraser’s views within their historical and artistic context, offering readers a rare opportunity to engage with the work as it was first conceived. Fraser’s Calcutta is at once imperial and everyday: grand public buildings stand alongside crowded bazaars; formal avenues open onto scenes of dense urban life; the river binds together commerce, ceremony, and movement. The result is a work that is both aesthetically compelling and historically invaluable. More than a collection of views, this volume is a reconstruction of a lost masterpiece – and a renewed encounter with a city at the height of its early modern transformation. It is intended both for general readers/collectors and for scholars of art history, urban history, and colonial studies.