Does The Fraser Album or a portion of its contents exist in cyberspace?
November 14, 2009 6:27 AM Subscribe
I'm reading City of Djinns : a year of Delhi by William Dalrymple and I have a question about the Fraser Album he references.
The individual watercolors in the album were dispersed in the 1970's and 80's as they were auctioned indiviually as far as I can tell. There is this reference
The eldest son of an impoverished Scottish family, Fraser went to India to try to recoup the family fortunes not in the normal way as the protégé of a Director of the East India Company securing entry into the civil service (no longer then a guarantee of an immense fortune), but as a businessman in Calcutta with other Scotsmen. In this career he was not very successful, and his visit to Delhi 1815-16 to see his brother William (in the East India Company's service and effectively Commissioner for the Delhi Territory) further alienated him from his chosen profession. Both brothers went off campaigning in the Himalayan foothills during the Anglo-Nepal War, during which time William Fraser recruited the first Gurkha irregulars into British service. James Fraser concentrated on his drawings of the mountainous scenery, and began to collect and commission drawings from Indian artists of the local people both in the mountains and, on the conclusion of the war, around Delhi. His collection of early 19th century Delhi paintings was the finest known; it was dispersed in a series of sales in the 1980s.
Is there any kind of repository that contains the contents of the Fraser Album? This kind of thing would be perfect for an web-based reference with the individual pages remaining with the collectors.
Does anyone know more about The Fraser Album or William and James Fraser?
The individual watercolors in the album were dispersed in the 1970's and 80's as they were auctioned indiviually as far as I can tell. There is this reference
The eldest son of an impoverished Scottish family, Fraser went to India to try to recoup the family fortunes not in the normal way as the protégé of a Director of the East India Company securing entry into the civil service (no longer then a guarantee of an immense fortune), but as a businessman in Calcutta with other Scotsmen. In this career he was not very successful, and his visit to Delhi 1815-16 to see his brother William (in the East India Company's service and effectively Commissioner for the Delhi Territory) further alienated him from his chosen profession. Both brothers went off campaigning in the Himalayan foothills during the Anglo-Nepal War, during which time William Fraser recruited the first Gurkha irregulars into British service. James Fraser concentrated on his drawings of the mountainous scenery, and began to collect and commission drawings from Indian artists of the local people both in the mountains and, on the conclusion of the war, around Delhi. His collection of early 19th century Delhi paintings was the finest known; it was dispersed in a series of sales in the 1980s.
Is there any kind of repository that contains the contents of the Fraser Album? This kind of thing would be perfect for an web-based reference with the individual pages remaining with the collectors.
Does anyone know more about The Fraser Album or William and James Fraser?
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posted by adamvasco at 1:07 PM on November 14, 2009