Tomb of Shams ud-Din Iltutmish at the Qutub Minar, Delhi.
William Simpson (1823 - 1899) was a distinguished watercolourist and war artist. Having established his reputation by documenting the Crimean war in 1854, Day and Sons, the London lithography firm, commissioned him to sketch well-known sites in and around Delhi associated with the uprising of 1857 by Indians against the rule of the British East India Company.
Simpson arrived in Calcutta (Kolkata) in 1859 and travelled widely. His rapid pencil drawings formed the preparatory studies for his finished watercolours done after his return to London in 1862. His detailed journal, sketches and pictures from India resulted in these highly coloured, evocative, and romantic interpretations of the landscape and architecture.
This watercolour, completed in London, shows the tomb of Shams ud-Din Iltutmish, founder of the Delhi Sultanate, in the Qutub Minar Complex in Delhi, India. Simpson arrived in Delhi on 29th December 1859, where he would have visited the Qutub Minar complex.