Sujaan Mukherjee writes of Frank Clinger Scallan's postcards of Calcutta: "The artist may or may not have used photographs as reference, but unlike most photographs that depict churches, public buildings or trams, these drawings recall a city that…
On the occasion of Rabindranath Tagore's birthday on May 7th, a very rare silk postcard of the great writer. The image is printed on silk, which is them stretched over and pasted on cardboard.
A striking studio portrait in which the viewer's eyes are drawn by to subject's wide-open gaze. Was he asked not to blink? Or did the photographer amend the negative?
Around the time this postcard was published, H. St.J. B. Philby, the father of the famous British spy Kim Philby (born in Ambala in 1912) and then serving in India, wrote in his memoir Arabian Days (Robert Hale, 1948):
[Original caption] Holwell Monument. John Zephaniah Holwell was the leader of the little band of Europeans left in peril after the Sack of Calcutta by the Nawab of Bengal in June 1756.
Bengal's rivers were traversed by boats and steamers, on which this man served a captain. The firm he worked for, "I.G.S.N." is likely emblazoned on his shirt.
Postmarked Calcutta January 18, 1918 and addressed to Mrs. Louise Fisher, 3820 Michigan Ave., Kansas City, Missouri, U.S.A.: "1/18 We are leaving Calcutta today for Ceylon. Perhaps we shall hear from you there. We hope you are well and happy.
