A watercolour showing a scene of fierce hand-to-hand fighting at the entrance to a British residence in Delhi: Indian sepoys aided by Indian civilians, are replelled by a British officer and his wife. Signed, lower right. Inscribed below: The Indian Mutiny. mutineers attacking a bungalow. Delhi. 

The Indian Rebellion, or the First War of Independence (commonly known as the Indian Mutiny) was sparked in May 1857 by an incident among angered Indian soldiers serving the British East India Company stationed at Meerut, and was joined by Bengal Infantry regiments and civilians, spreading across north and north east India to include the cities of Delhi, Agra, Kanpur and Lucknow. Simmering resentment at colonial rule formed the backdrop to the Rebellion. The British East India Company's annexation of lands, crippling taxation and religious intolerance were among the many causes.  

Delhi became a focal point for the rebellion. The ageing figurehead of Mughal rule, Bahadur Shah II, was nominally restored to power by the soldiery, and after fierce fighting and much loss of life throughout the summer, Delhi was recaptured by East India Company forces in September 1857.

Orlando Norie was born into a well-known Scottish artistic family but spent much of his working life in France. He is particularly known as a painter of military scenes, and had a long-lasting professional relationship with the printsellers and publishers Ackermann & Co who managed his picture sales and published lithographs after his drawings, beginning with scenes of the Crimean War in the 1850s. He is not thought to have travelled outside of Europe, and therefore his depictions of colonial military action are not personal eye-witness accounts. The significant group (c.70) of watercolours by Norie now in the Royal Collection primarily came from two sources - Queen Victoria, via purchase or commission, and at least eighteen which were previously in the collection of her son Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught, who served in the British Army. These were given to the Royal Collection after his death in 1942.