Major (later Colonel) John Alexander Temple was born in about 1860 and died in 1928. He was one of the three sons of Sir Richard Temple, Bt. (1826-1902), Chief Commissioner of the Central Provinces (1862) and Governor of Bombay (1877), who was himself an amateur artist and played a leading role in Indian art education. John Alexander was the younger step-brother of Lieutenant Colonel Sir Richard Carnac Temple, Bt. (1850-1931), Chief Commissioner of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands (1894), under whom he served alongside their cousin, Harry Rivett-Carnac. The V&A owns five paintings by this artist which were acquired in 1937. This landscape, painted at Adegaon, Seoni District, Madhya Pradesh (Central Provinces), India, shows a large tank at the base of a mound on the top of which are fortifications inside a grove. The whole scene is radiant with sunshine. People are bathing in the tank, and horses are drinking from it.