The Hour of Prayer at the Pearl Mosque, Agra (Alternate Title)
The Hour of Prayer at Moti Mushid (The Pearl Mosque), Agra (Primary Title)

A leading “Orientalist” painter, illustrator, photographer, writer, explorer, and collector, Edwin Lord Weeks was the first known American artist to visit India. Born in Boston and trained in Paris, the inveterate traveler was particularly drawn to Ahmadabad, the principal city of the western state of Gujarat, famed for its 15th- and 16th-century mosques and tombs with their intricate teak and sandstone architectural decorations. On his first trip to India, Weeks encountered the American painter-cum-designer Lockwood de Forest, an avid admirer and promoter of South Asian art and craft. An early business colleague of Louis Comfort Tiffany, de Forest had recently established the Ahmedabad [sic] Wood Carving Company in partnership with prominent local merchant banker Dalpatbhai Muggunbhai Hutheesing. The Hour of Prayer at Moti Mushid (The Pearl Mosque), Agra, housed in its original frame designed by de Forest, dates from Weeks’s second India excursion. It was awarded a Gold Medal at the 1889 Paris Salon, where the artist’s works created a public sensation.