Yale Center for British Art

Creator:
William Hodges, 1744–1797, British
Title:
Storm on the Ganges, with Mrs. Hastings near the Col-gon Rocks
Date:
ca. 1790
Materials & Techniques:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
50 × 72 inches (127 × 182.9 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscription, on the verso, upper center: "Pitt & Scott Ltd | London | G. [handwritten] 1698 | #216 | [typed] 1685"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1973.1.23
Classification:
Paintings
Collection:
Paintings and Sculpture
Subject Terms:
rainbow | clouds | waves (natural events) | rocks (landforms) | sunlight | meteorology | science | river | storm | tree | journey | boat | canoe | barge | landscape
Associated Places:
Bhagalpur | Kahalgaon | Asia | Ganges | India
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
The Critique of Reason : Romantic Art, 1760–1860 (Yale University Art Gallery, 2015-03-06 - 2015-07-26)

Imaginative Geographies (Yale Center for British Art, 2006-02-01 - 2006-08-18)

William Hodges, RA (1744-1797) (Yale Center for British Art, 2005-01-27 - 2005-04-24)

William Hodges, RA (1744-1797) (National Maritime Museum, 2004-07-06 - 2004-11-21)

Company Culture (Yale Center for British Art, 2003-09-16 - 2004-01-05)

Juxtapositions (Yale Center for British Art, 1997-11-19 - 1998-01-04)
Publications:
Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 118-119, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA)

Letters of Warren Hastings to his wife, Athenaeum, no, 4092, March 31, 1906, p. 386, Online Resource available through the British Periodicals database

John McAleer, Picturing India People, Places, and the World of the East India Company, The British Library, London, p. 79, fig. 3.2, N8214.5.I5 M43 2017 (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. 26, V 1199 (YCBA)

Pratapaditya Pal, From merchants to emperors, British artists and India, 1757-1930 , Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1986, pp. 102, 104, fig. 97, N8214.5 I5 P25 + OVERSIZE (YCBA)

Martin Postle, Johan Zoffany, RA : Society Observed, , Yale University Press, New Haven, 2011, pp. 150-51, fig. 138, NJ18 Z68 + A12 2011 Oversize (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. 185-6, no. 70, , NJ18 H646 +W55 2004 (YCBA)

Geoff Quilley, William Hodges, art and empire, Geoff Quilley shows how the work of Hodges, official artist on Cook's second voyage and subject of a major exhibition opening this month at the National Maritime Museum, sheds light on perceptions of the British Empire , History Today, vol. 54, no. 7, July 2004, p. 47, Online resource See Orbis; hard copy also available at SML [D1 H78 + OVERSIZE]

Romita Ray, Under the banyan tree, relocating the picturesque in British India , The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, New Haven, pp. 218-19, fig. 95, N8214.5.I5 R39 2013 (YCBA)

Isabel Combs Stuebe, Life and works of William Hodges, , Garland Publishing, Inc., New York, 1979, pp. xvii, 62-63, 228-29, no. 263, fig. 178, NJ18 H646 S75 1979 (YCBA)

Isabel Combs Stuebe, William Hodges and Warren Hastings : a study in eighteenth-century patronage, , Burlington Magazine, vol. 115, October 1973, pp. 6558, 660, 662, 664, 665, fig. 40, N1 +B87 v. 115:3 Also avaialble online (ORBIS)

Giles Tillotson, Artificial empire, the Indian landscapes of William Hodges , Curzon Press, Richmond [England], 2000, p. 118, fig. 44, NJ18 H646 T55 2000 (YCBA)

Yale Center for British Art, William Hodges, 1744-1797, the art of exploration : Yale Center for British Art, 27 January-24 April 2005 , New Haven, January 27-April 24, 2005, V1422 (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
The rocks of Kahalgaon (known as Colgong during the colonial period) lie along a treacherous stretch of the Ganges River in the state of Bihar, India. The boulders are so large that they form small islands, upon which ancient tombs and dwellings were built. In this scene, a passenger boat is hurled toward the giant rocks. Trees sway in the wind and the crew lose control of the oars and are flung overboard. A shaft of light breaks through the clouds, a rainbow appears, and calmer waters beyond the rocks foretell that the storm will soon pass and the passengers will survive.\n\n The painting was commissioned by Warren Hastings, governor of Bengal, after his return to England from India, to commemorate this dramatic episode in the life of his wife, Marian (née Chapuset), who survived this calamitous journey to arrive at his sickbed.\n\n Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2021
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:125