Lieutenant-Colonel George Francis White

Lieutenant-Colonel George Francis White (1808-1898)
'Pen & Ink Sketches in India': an album titled thus on the upper board, and containing 25 sketches (180 x 260mm. et infra), mounted onto album leaves, comprising: 'near Sydabad Novr 30th 1826'; 'old Fort near Kurrah Decr 6th 1826'; 'A Serai near Kurrah'; 'Tomb of Kanda Khan near Dinapore Octr 9th 1826'; 'Old Gateway near Korah Decr'; 'Old Ruins & scenes near Joosee Nov 31st 1826'; 'near Allahabad. R. Ganges India 1 Decr 1826'; 'Fort of Allahabad Ganges Decr 2nd 1826'; 'Village opposite Allahabad, Ganges 3 Decr'; 'Old city of Korah near Jelalabad, India'; 'old Tomb near Delhi 14th Octr 1828'; 'View from Sufter Jung's Tomb near Delhi 12 Decr'; 'View near Delhi Decr 13th 1828'; 'Near Delhi 15 Decr 1828'; 'Himalaya Mtns -- on Mt Tyne May 30'; 'Himalaya Mtns. Village of Minallee May 1829'; 'Mode of crossing a river in the Himalaya Mtns April 26th 1831'; 'Rosly's Spring Land.... Himalaya Mtns 21 Septr 1829'; 'Scene among the Himalayah Mtns'; 'Encampment at Katnoorab, Himalaya Mountains -- De
White's Views in India chiefly among the Himalaya Mountains taken during tours in the direction of Mussooree, Simla, the sources of the Jumna and Ganges etc. in 1829, 31, 32, (E. Roberts, ed., London, 1838) included 37 plates after his drawings, the engravers including J.M.W. Turner. The Views by this officer of the 31st Regiment, many from the present drawings 'executed on the spot', provided one of first pictorial surveys of the then little-known Himalayas ('...with the Mountain Scenery of India, surpassed in grandeur by none other in the world, we have been hitherto very little familiar', Preface). White also published Hindostan, the shores of the Red Sea and the Himalaya Mountains in 1845 and his drawings were used for Robert Burford's panorama of the Himalayas exhibited at Leicester Square in 1847. For further Indian albums by White, see P. Kattenhorn, British Drawings in the India Office Library, III, London 1994, pp.341-49.