Design for Jaipur Column, New Delhi, India: perspective, c.1920

Sir Edwin Lutyens PRA (1869 - 1944)

RA Collection: Art

Sir Edwin Lutyens and Herbert Baker headed the team of architects charged with planning the development of New Delhi when the British moved the Indian capital from Calcutta in the early 20th century. This was an imperialist project intended to express the 'might and permanence' (as described by Baron Stamfordham, private secretary to King George V) of British rule in all aspects of its design. Within two decades of its completion, however, Indian independence was declared and the area became the administrative hub of the new government.

As part of the New Delhi scheme, Lutyens designed the Jaipur Column to stand outside the east front of his monumental Rashtrapati Bhavan, the presidential residence (previously Viceroy's House). The column was a gift from the Maharaja of Jaipur and commemorated the Delhi Durbar (or Court of Delhi) of 1911 which was organized by the British administration and attended by King George V and Queen Mary. At more than 145 feet in height and standing on a broad red sandstone plinth, the column is decorated with a pattern of British oak leaves and topped by the Star of India. The orb beneath the star, seen in this perspective drawing which was presented by Lutyens as his RA Diploma Work in 1920, was replaced in the final design by a bronze lotus flower.

Lutyens produced many design sketches and drawings but always passed on these drafts to his assistants to work up to scale. This perspective was drawn by William Walcot (1874-1943) who was Lutyens’s favourite architectural perspectivist.