Signed and located 'E.L. Weeks/ Lahore' bottom left, oil on canvas
19 x 13 in. (48.3 x 33cm)

Provenance: Private Collection, Pennsylvania.
EXHIBITED:
"Empire of India Exhibition", Earl's Court, London S.W., 1895, no. 12, (As "A Street in Lahore, with houses of carved wood and the Dome of the Golden Mosque").
LITERATURE:
Empire of India Exhibition, 1895. Catalogue and Description of Paintings and Studies of Indian Life, by Mr. E. L. Weeks, no. 12.
Edwin Lord Weeks, From the Black Sea through Persia and India, London and New York: 1895, pp. 178-181 and p. 183 (a similar street view in Lahore appears on p. 163, labeled "A Lahore Street-Morning").
NOTE:
Weeks entered Lahore, at the time in the Punjab of greater India in December of 1892 or January 1893, after traveling through Persia in the summer and fall of 1892. This was his third and last expedition into India, since 1882-83 and 1887, and his first experience of the city of Lahore (now in Pakistan). In his book, From the Black Sea through Persia and India, Weeks noted, "There are two domed edifices which may have been tombs or fountains, but which now shelter various rude thatched awnings projecting from their eaves." (pp. 178-179). Weeks renders these in glistening sunlight, being so adept at sunshine and shadow.
Of special note are the carved wooden superstructures above the shop fronts lining the street. Of these he wrote:
"[I]n its display of carved and weather-beaten wood-work, of balconies and jutting windows, each house exhibiting the individual taste and fancy of its designer, it is probably unequaled in any city of the East." (p. 180)
"[The] wealth of old woodwork becomes fairly prodigal; the side streets ... give one the impression that each house-holder has vied to outdo his neighbor in throwing out these crowded ranks of beautiful windows, and in covering every inch of wall with decoration..." (p. 181)
"Beyond the group of gilded domes...The Jumma Musjid, or Great Mosque rises beyond an open desert space near the end of this street." (p. 183)
This sunny painting was executed on site and, coincident with Weeks' descriptions, features an above eye-level view of the row of elaborately carved wooden windows and balconies rising above the roofs of the street-level shops of various kinds, the street itself densely packed with tradesmen coming and going. These figures, as with the two men in the foreground, have heads wrapped in a heavy regional turban of cotton and wear a dhoti (underlying white cotton tunic and pants), with overcoats of white and yellow cloth, or entire white clothing as with the two figures marching down the street on the extreme left.
As indicated in his section on Lahore, Weeks gives us a view of the golden domes of the mosque seen arising from the rooftops. But the focus of the painting is clearly seen in his rendering of the detailed fanciful ornamented, paneled and bracketed woodwork of the houses lining the street, jutting forth at different depths. This woodwork fascinated Weeks in Lahore and Ahmedabad (farther south). In another in situ painting of Lahore shown at the Empire of India Exhibition, the woodwork is also painted and seen with nautch girls peering from overhead from the balconies. But the present painting is a finely detailed rendering of the architecture and commerce of a Lahore street. Weeks greatly relied on these in situ works for backdrops to some of his major paintings, executed in his Paris studio during the 1890s upon his return from India.
The present lot will be accompanied by a letter of authenticity by Dr. Ellen K. Morris. This painting will also be included by Dr. Morris in the Catalogue Raisonné. We thank Dr. Morris for researching and writing the preceding catalogue entry.