Bird's Eye View of Lucknow and the Country Towards Cawnpore

A hand-drawn view of Lucknow, looking down the Gomti River. This sketch was created by an engraver, based on either a painting by a different artist or a photograph, in order to figure out the composition and details before committing it to a metal plate. Though the artist of the original painting remains unknown, the resultant engraving has been widely published, including in The Illustrated History of the British Empire in India and the East, from the Earliest Times to the Suppression of the Sepoy Mutiny in 1859, by E. H. Nolan [see final image]. In that publication, the illustration is entitled ‘Bird’s-eye view of Lucknow and the country towards Cawnpore’. The various landmarks are numbered and labelled with a key. Also labelled are the sites of military events during the Indian Rebellion of 1857, including the line of General Havelock’s advance and the line of Sir Colin Campbell’s advance. 

The source of the original image is unknown. However, the detailed nature may suggest that it was based on a photograph. Several European photographers were working in Lucknow in the 1850s and 1860s such as Felice Beato (Italy, 1832–1909), who documented Lucknow during the aftermath of the Mutiny, John Edward Saché (Prussia, 1824–1882), or photographers employed by Francis Frith studio.1

[1] ‘The Anne S.K. Brown Military Collection: Beato’, Brown University Library, retrieved online via https://library.brown.edu/info/collections/askb/beato/ on 28th November 2025.