ROBERT HYDE COLEBROOKE (1762–1808)
Robert Colebrooke had a distinguished career with the Bengal Infantry from 1778 until his death at Bhagalpur in 1781, he marched with a detachment from Bengal to Madras to join the army against Haider Ali. After his return three years later, he conducted surveys in Bengal and elsewhere until towards the end of 1790, he was again detailed for service in Mysore, and this time he sailed to Madras on a pisloop. While surveying the routes taken during the marches of the army under Lord Cornwallis in 1791 and 1792, he made drawings of Seringapatam, Bangalore and the local countryside including the hill–forts of Mysore.

Colebrooke twelve views of Mysore, which were among the early prints to show places directly associated with Haider Ali and Tippu Sultan, soon because popular. In December 1776, the Calcutta firm of Dring Cleland & co., announced the auction of fifty sets of the second
impressions of Capt. Colebrook’s views in the Mysore country. A further edition appeared in 1801, Edward Orne published his set of the views in 1805 and they were issued in Paris on a smaller scale in 1812.