Hindu Merchants

Edwin Lord Weeks traveled to India in 1883, following many years of travel throughout North Africa. A photographer as well as a painter, he wrote in his letters that he wandered the streets by day and developed his photographs at night. He reveled in the local culture, paying particular attention to the details of dress and customs. He was less interested in royalty than in the everyday lives of people he encountered in the streets. Weeks relied on his photographs to supply the rich details of Indian architecture: elaborately carved cornices and arches filled with polychromed geometric and floral designs speak to the visual sophistication of Indian civilization. The lasting impact of his paintings was to bring alive a culture with which most of his American patrons were unfamiliar.