Hodges in Calcutta On reaching Calcutta from Madras in March 1781, Hodges soon met Warren Hastings, who became his patron and life-long friend. In an unusual gesture, Hastings also arranged for the Company to grant him an annual salary of 12,000 rupees. Much refreshed by the voyage, Hodges found Calcutta to be a spacious, well-planned city with palatial detached houses giving ‘the appearance of Grecian temples: and indeed every house may be considered a temple dedicated to hospitality.’ He had much in common with the inhabitants and their scholarly interests in Oriental subjects seeing his role as an antiquarian interested in the country’s Indian monuments, which he systematically recorded in a series of large pencil drawings, some with ink, grey wash and occasional white highlights. Hodges’ collection of ninety drawings in three volumes became the main source for his oil paintings and prints of Indian subjects throughout his life. After Hodges’ death in 1797, these volumes were acquired by Warren Hastings and are now in the Yale Center for British Art. Hastings was among the first people in Calcutta to commission an oil painting from Hodges. Titled 'A View of Calcutta Taken from Fort William', the picture displays hallmarks of the classical Picturesque as represented by its balanced composition, harmonious colours and tranquil atmosphere (fig. 9). Pictures by Hodges often capture unique effects of light, a fleeting moment when fading sunlight illuminates particular buildings or landscape features. His 'View of Calcutta from Garden House Reach', for example, portrays dark monsoon clouds about to sweep across the sky above the Hooghly River, calm and milky white as if before a storm, a striking atmospheric phenomenon that Hodges must have witnessed many times. Other pictures are almost theatrical, containing dramatic representations of landscape features and buildings. His sweeping panoramic views dominated by broad skies and peopled with tiny figures to enhance the sense of scale, often contain isolated tombs, lone palm trees, or crumbling ruins. Source : ILLWA

can't imagine calcutta like tht...............so serene