The watercolour shows a bustling street in Bombay in the 19th century. A European gentleman in a top hat rides in a carriage between merchants and street sellers. It shows the cosmopolitan nature of port cities at the time, with everyone jostling for space on the busy streets. William Simpson (1823-1899) was a successful topographical artist who after a series of acclaimed images of the Crimean War, was commissioned in 1859 by the publishers Day and Son, to produce images of India for publication. On his return he produced the book India: Ancient and Modern London, 1867, a series of illustrations with a descriptive text by John William Kaye. He made several later trips to India as well.
