This is one of William Carpenter's earliest Indian paintings. It shows the outside of a grain shop in Pune (Poona), central India. You can see people sitting or standing beside the mounds of grain on sale. Carpenter's Indian pictures display a particular interest in costume, agriculture, and the day-to-day lives of the local inhabitants.
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Carpenter's mother was the distinguished portrait painter Margaret Sarah Carpenter (née Geddes). His father, William Hookham Carpenter, became Keeper of the Prints and Drawings Department at the British Museum. In early 1850 William Carpenter landed in Bombay. He spent much of his time painting portraits of local rulers and the surrounding countryside, often wearing Indian dress himself. He travelled widely, from Sri Lanka in the south to Kashmir in the north. He also spent some time in the Panjab and Afghanistan before moving south to Rajasthan. He appears to have returned to England in 1856.
