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Creator:
William Hodges, 1744–1797
Title:
The Fort of Bidjegur
Former Title(s):

An Indian Landscape with a Fort on a Hill [1985, Cormack, YCBA Concise Catalogue]

View of the fort of Beijegur in the East Indies [1786, Royal Academy of Arts, London, exhibition catalogue]
Date:
ca. 1784
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
24 1/8 × 40 inches (61.3 × 101.6 cm), Frame: 31 1/4 × 47 × 2 1/4 inches (79.4 × 119.4 × 5.7 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1976.7.42
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Link to Frame:
B1976.7.42FR
Subject Terms:
architectural subject | cannon | cliff | fort | fortress | hill | landscape | man | military art | mountain | soldier
Associated Places:
India | Jaipur | Varanasi
Access:
Not on view
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:278
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In his memoir, Willam Hodges recounted the siege of Bidjegur (Bijaigarh) in October 1781. Major William Popham led a campaign against Chait Singh, Raja of Benares, who resisted British incursions into Benghal. Bidjegur was one of Singh’s last strongholds, a mountain fortress set in a densely wooded landscape. Warren Hastings, Governor-General of Benghal, commanded Hodges to join Popham’s siege in order to draw the fort and the local topography. Hodges was present when the fort fell to Popham on November 10, after being bombarded by British guns, one of which is represented to the left. Hastings congratulated Popham on the “easy conquest” and commissioned a painting of the fort from Hodges, one of many commissions that celebrated his career in India; two of these, the Storm on the Ganges and The Marmalong Bridge, hang nearby. This version of Bidjegur, however, is a replica that Hodges made for Captain Justly Hill, who took part in Popham’s campaign. Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016


Hodges based his painting of the fort at Bidjegur (or Bijaigarh), in northern India, on a drawing he made for Warren Hastings, the Governor General of Bengal. The artist showed the fort at the time it was besieged by the British under Colonel Popham in 1781, as evidenced by the soldier and cannon on the left. At that time the fort was the last stronghold of Chait Singh of Benares, who had rebelled against Hastings. A painting of this same scene by Hodges hung at Hastings's home in England, Daylesford House, alongside Hodges's Storm on the Ganges, with Mrs. Hastings near Col-gon Rocks.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2010

Adapting the Eye: an archive of the British in India, 1770-1830 (Yale Center for British Art, 2011-10-11 - 2011-12-31) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

William Hodges, RA (1744-1797) (Yale Center for British Art, 2005-01-27 - 2005-04-24) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Company Culture (Yale Center for British Art, 2003-09-16 - 2004-01-05) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 116-117, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Exhibition Catalogue. 1786. 18th, Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, no. 18, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1786, no. 145, N5054 A53 14-28 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Morna O'Neill, Company Culture:, British Artists and the East India Company 1770-1830: October 16, 2003-January 11, 2004 , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2003, no. 19, V 1199 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Geoff Quilley, William Hodges, 1744-1797 : The art of exploration : catalogue to the exhibition at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, 5 July-21 November, 2004 and the Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 27 January-24 April 2005 , , Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2004, pp. 164-65, no. 58, NJ18 H646 +W55 2004 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Holly Shaffer, Adapting the eye, An archive of the British in India, 1770-1830 , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2011, p. 26, no. 34, V2359 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Isabel Combs Stuebe, Life and works of William Hodges, , Garland Publishing, Inc., New York, 1979, pp. xv, 216, no. 226, fig. 153, NJ18 H646 S75 1979 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Beth Fowkes Tobin, Colonizing nature, the tropics in British arts and letters, 1760-1820 , Academy, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2005, p. 137, fig. 23, PR129 T76 T63 2005 (YCBA) Also available online - Project Muse (ORBIS) [YCBA]


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