Artwork Information

This watercolour provides a view out across Delhi’s Yamuna River towards the Red Fort from Salimgarh Fort, which was built in 1546 by Salim Shah Suri (ruling 1545–1554). Salim’s father, Sher Shah, had ousted the Mughal Emperor Humayun from Delhi in 1540 to establish the Sur dynasty rule. The fort’s circular bastions, which can be seen in the right foreground of this watercolour, were built to defend the city from Humayun’s reprisal. Such fears were not unfounded – Humayun recaptured the city in 1555. The Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb (ruling 1658-1707), who also built the Moti Masjid, subsequently converted the fort into a prison. The fort remained a prison for the next 500 years and was where fighters from the Indian National Army were incarcerated by the British Army from 1945 until India’s independence in 1947.