Scene on the Ganges, probably in Bihar

This painting and its pair (GAC 1229 and GAC 1230) include the Ganges and probably show parts of the river within the northern Indian state of Bihar. One depicts a substantial property, built in the manner of an 18th-century English country house, while the other shows a paddle steamer ploughing through the waters in the middle distance. The pictures are apparently a pair depicting different views of the same place. Although the location has yet to be identified, the house bears a resemblance to Barrackpore House, the country residence of the Governor General of Bengal, as it was between 1807 and 1815, when the then Governor Lord Francis Rawdon Hastings (1754–1826) further aggrandised it. The inclusion of a paddle steamer, however, points to a date later than 1815 for these paintings, because paddle steamers were not common on the river Ganges until about 1830.