Rameshwar cave, Ellora

William Simpson, born on 28 October 1823 in Glasgow, was a distinguished watercolourist and war artist. Following a seven-year apprenticeship with a specialist lithographic firm, he moved to London in February 1851 and found employment with Day and Sons. The firm commissioned him to go to India and record places associated with the events of the Indian Mutiny of 1857.

Simpson arrived in Calcutta (Kolkata) at the end of October 1859 and travelled extensively. Throughout his life, he kept careful diaries, and his hundreds of sketches and pictures themselves formed an authentic record of his travels. In India, he planned to produce four large volumes with approximately 250 plates to be lithographed as illustrations. He spent seven years on the project – three years making preparatory works and the rest in London working his sketches into finished paintings.