On the Steps of the Jumma Masjid by Mortimer Menpes. 1903. Watercolor. “Tens of thousands listening for a signal — the Royal Salute — to say that the Viceroy had entered the Imperial City.” Source: The Durbar, facing p. 30. Click on image to enlarge it.
The artist’s first reaction to the Jumma Masjid
I shall never forget my first sight of the Jumma Masjid. It was worth coming from the ends of the earth to see. What was it like ? What can I compare it with? Anything that we in England have ever seen? I think not. Perhaps a garden is nearest to it not a Surrey garden planted with stocks and mignonette, but an ideal garden such as we have all dreamed of, with banks studded with gorgeous, flaming tropical flowers. No : that will not do: it must be a garden of jewels, a garden set with jewels, with pearls, sapphires, rubies, and diamonds. How impossible this scene is to paint impossible to imagine, im- possible to describe! The streets, the houses, the roofs, the steps, and the benches massed about the Jumma Masjid teemed and vibrated with colour; the flower-beds stretched far as eye could see; it was a garden for a fairy princess. Poor painters, poor palettes ! How futile your efforts must be!
We felt like beetles, dull-coloured beetles, and terribly Saxon as we forced our way among these living flower-beds and mounted up to the terrace reserved for Lord Curzon's guests. The temple was already filled with people, a brilliant throng, the women in their gayest dress, and all the men in uniform. [36-37]
Here was I standing before a scene which no artist save Turner should ever have attempted to paint, calmly unfolding a stupid little paint-box and squeezing out tubes of Reeves's water-colour, pigment which, compared with the glowing tones around me, looked like mud. Still, I shut my teeth firmly and went on doggedly, scarce knowing what I was doing, but trying to brazen it out: I too am an Anglo-Saxon. Presently I plucked up courage; for there, a few yards off, was another of my craft working away with pencil and note-book. [39]
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Bibliography
Menpes, Mortimer. The Durbar. Text by Dorothy Menpes. London: Adam & Charles Black, 1903. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of California at Los Angeles Library. Web. 27 May 2017.
Last modified 2 June 2017