Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1974.3.8
Gallery Label:
Five years after returning from the South Seas, William Hodges set sail for India. He arrived in Madras in 1780, where a combination of sickness and the war between the Indian ruler Hyder Ali and the British delayed his departure for Calcutta for nearly a year. In Calcutta, Warren Hastings, the Governor-General of Bengal (whose portrait hangs nearby), arranged for Hodges to receive a salary from the East India Company and commissioned pictures from Hodges himself, including this example. Hodges described Marmalong Bridge as “a very modern work, built . . . at the expence of an Armenian merchant.” He perhaps intended to contrast such modern “improvements” with the ancient civilizations of India represented by the figures in the foreground, in particular the woman bearing a water jar on her head. The sepoy, or Indian soldier serving with the East India Company, is a reminder of the warfare then ravaging southern India. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016