Artwork

B. c/o Devonshire Regiment, Jhansi (recto); Staff of Messrs. Glover & Co., Sindh Bridge (verso)

B. c/o Devonshire Regiment, Jhansi (recto); Staff of Messrs. Glover & Co., Sindh Bridge (verso) is a photography by the Impressionist artist Raja Deen Dayal. It dates from 1884 and is held in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. The sheet contains two small gelatin silver prints taken in India during the mid‑1880s.

About this work

Overview

The sheet contains two small gelatin silver prints taken in India during the mid‑1880s. One image records a group of British soldiers stationed at Jhansi, while the opposite side shows Indian clerks at work for the trading firm Glover & Co. at the Sindh Bridge. Both photographs are part of a larger, now fragmented, album of roughly 105 pictures created between 1885 and the summer of 1887.

Subject & Meaning

The soldier photograph captures the troops in a relaxed, informal stance, offering a glimpse of daily military life far from the battlefield. The counterpart presents Indian office staff engaged in routine paperwork, illustrating the administrative side of colonial commerce. Together they document ordinary moments of two distinct social groups coexisting under British rule.

Technique & Style

Neither image appears to be a staged studio portrait; instead they convey a candid, documentary quality, suggesting they were taken quickly while the photographer moved through the environment. The modest size and straightforward composition emphasize the subjects’ activities rather than any artistic embellishment.

History & Provenance

These prints belong to an album that was likely assembled by a British civil servant visiting or serving in India around 1888, intended as a personal record of his experiences. The museum currently holds a separate set of 37 photographs from the same collection (catalogued as 2016.266), indicating that the original album has been disassembled over time.

Context

The photographs were produced during a period when the British Empire was consolidating its presence in the Indian subcontinent. Jhansi was a strategic military post, while the Sindh Bridge area was a hub for trade and administration, reflecting the intertwined military and commercial dimensions of colonial governance.

Legacy

As rare visual testimonies of everyday colonial life, the images contribute to scholarly understanding of British‑Indian interactions in the late nineteenth century. Their unposed nature provides historians with authentic material for studying the social dynamics and occupational routines of the era.