India (SOLD)

Signed, inscribed and dated l.l.: Reginald Barrett./Gwalior./1911, watercolour over traces of pencil, in a gilt frame23.4 x 15.8 cm.; 9 ¼ x 6 ¼ inchesFrame size 38 x 29 cm.; 14 7/8 x 11 ½ inchesProvenanceHartnoll and Eyre;Private collection, U.K. until 2020Barrett was a painter of landscapes and architectural subjects. He had been articled to the architect Norman Shaw and then studied in Paris under Lefèbvre and Bouguereau. He worked as an illustrator for The Graphic and The Daily Graphic. He was an inveterate traveller in the Middle East and Italy and was commissioned by Queen Victoria to paint her favourite view in Florence. From 1885 he exhibited at the Royal Academy, New Watercolour Society and New Gallery, becoming AWRS in 1901 and RWS in 1913. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.Barrett’s one-man shows A Collection of Watercolour Drawings Illustrating India and Egypt was held at the Fine Art Society in 1894 and Watercolours of India at the Leicester Galleries, London in 1912.The fort at Gwalior was the favourite building of Babur, the first Mughal emperor of India.

Inscribed l.r.: Buah Nam nam./Cynometra cauliflora. and with further botanical notes in Latin, Jawi and Greek, watercolour and bodycolour over traces of pencil with gum arabic, on laid paper watermarked: RUSE & TURNERS/1825 and with the Strasburg Lily37.5 x 48.5 cm; 14 3/4 x 19 1/4 inchesBuah Nam is a member of the family Fabaceae (legumes) native to Malaysia, a small, cauliflorous tree with a thick, heavily branched stem, and rather small flowers, about 1.2 cm across, that appear on the stem in clusters. The pod is edible with aromatic, juicy yellow pulp and large seeds.ProvenanceSharon and Anne Hamlyn until 2019These fine examples of watercolours by Chinese Artists of the Straits School are in the style of the Chinese artists who worked for Sir Stamford Raffles in Singapore and Major-General William Farquhar (c.1771-1839) who was Resident of Malacca from 1808-1818. The frequent movements of trade and personnel between India and China, via ports on the Malay peninsula including Malacca and Prince of Wales Island, meant that collectors frequently had both Indian and Chinese drawings in their collections. Henry Noltie has suggested that this school is named ‘Straits School’ (see Forgotten Masters Indian Painting for the East India Company, ed. W. Dalrymple, 2019, pp. 78-82).British patrons commissioned local Chinese artists to draw the flora and fauna of Malacca and the extensive botanical annotations in Jawi, the Malay script derived from Arabic, Romanised Malay, Latin and Greek and with reference to the Linnaean system of classification, created by Carl Linnaeus (1707-78) are typical of this material.The accumulation of natural history drawings by officials of the British East India Company gave rise to the term ‘Company School’, now out of favour, which has been used to describe the work of Indian or Chinese artists for British patrons. The distinctive style is a result of a fusion of two artistic traditions, the European with its desire for realism and the Asian taste for a more stylised approach.The eighteenth and early nineteenth century saw an enormous rise of interest in Europe in the study of natural history by both scientists and amateurs. A knowledge of the subject was considered to be an important part of a liberal education and many people studied ‘natural philosophy’ and the various branches of natural history. Accurate drawings were vital tools in classification as well as a reminder of the excited reaction to new discoveries.

Inscribed l.r.: Buah rambootan./Nephelium lappaceum./Monaecia pentandria L. and with further botanical notes, watercolour and bodycolour over traces of pencil with gum arabic, on laid paper watermarked: RUSE & TURNERS/1825 and with the Strasburg Lily38.2 x 48.7 cm; 15 x 19 inchesProvenanceSharon and Anne Hamlyn until 2019These fine examples of watercolours by Chinese Artists of the Straits School are in the style of the Chinese artists who worked for Sir Stamford Raffles in Singapore and Major-General William Farquhar (c.1771-1839) who was Resident of Malacca from 1808-1818. The frequent movements of trade and personnel between India and China, via ports on the Malay peninsula including Malacca and Prince of Wales Island, meant that collectors frequently had both Indian and Chinese drawings in their collections. Henry Noltie has suggested that this school is named ‘Straits School’ (see Forgotten Masters Indian Painting for the East India Company, ed. W. Dalrymple, 2019, pp. 78-82).British patrons commissioned local Chinese artists to draw the flora and fauna of Malacca and the extensive botanical annotations in Jawi, the Malay script derived from Arabic, Romanised Malay, Latin and Greek and with reference to the Linnaean system of classification, created by Carl Linnaeus (1707-78) are typical of this material.The accumulation of natural history drawings by officials of the British East India Company gave rise to the term ‘Company School’, now out of favour, which has been used to describe the work of Indian or Chinese artists for British patrons. The distinctive style is a result of a fusion of two artistic traditions, the European with its desire for realism and the Asian taste for a more stylised approach.The eighteenth and early nineteenth century saw an enormous rise of interest in Europe in the study of natural history by both scientists and amateurs. A knowledge of the subject was considered to be an important part of a liberal education and many people studied ‘natural philosophy’ and the various branches of natural history. Accurate drawings were vital tools in classification as well as a reminder of the excited reaction to new discoveries.

Signed l.l.: Charles D’Oyly, watercolour over pencil18 x 15.5 cmThe interior of the artist’s house at Patna is illustrated in two watercolours dated 1824 in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, nos. 2019 and 2020 which show that D’Oyly’s house was a busy place, full of visitors and dogs.The present work, which relates to the Yale drawings, depicts details of the interior with a colonial sofa, a table, wall lights and a heavy curtain at the French window, as well as a travel book propped against the wall and a framed marine painting. A lush garden with palm trees can be glimpsed in the distance through the open window.D’Oyly and his second wife Elizabeth Jane Ross moved to Patna in Bihar in 1821 when he became Opium Agent for the East India Company. Their house at Bankipore, a suburb of Patna, was a focus of artistic activity, and Elizabeth also painted as well as being a musician.

Signed, inscribed and dated l.r.: E F Green Poonah 1847, oil on canvas76.9 x 63.8 cm; 30 ¼ x 25 1/8 inchesProvenanceChristie’s, London, 5 June 1996, lot 140;Private collection, ScandinaviaExhibitedRoyal Academy, 1851, no. 446In this evocative image, the snake charmer holds a pungi. His assistant has a python draped around him and a mongoose, commonly included in snake charmers’ performances, is tied up in the corner of the composition. A third snake slithers in the foreground. They are standing in a landscape with a fort on a hill in the middle distance, with mountains beyond. Green, while not known for his topographical accuracy, seems to have captured the hilly landscape around Poona, and the building on the rocky outcrop in the present work may be loosely based on the Maratha Hill Fort at Purandhar. The temples may be inspired by the Temples of Parvati at Poona.Snake charmingSnake charming, as it exists today, is thought to have originated in India, and Hinduism has long revered serpents, particularly cobras, as sacred creatures. Originally snake charmers may have been healers, who were able to treat snake bites. Some learned how to handle snakes and could be called upon to remove snakes from places where they were not wanted. They were a familiar sight of Indian street life until the 1970s when the practise was outlawed. The ubiquitous controlled battle between a mongoose, immune to snake venom, and a cobra usually saw the snake charmer handle the lithe mongoose on a rope so that it didn’t kill the cobra.The pungi or tiktiri is an Indian wind instrument consisting of two reed pipes glued together and inserted into the thick end of a gourd – the hollow, dried shell of a fruit in the Cucurbitaceae family of plants, which includes melons, cucumbers and squashes. The mouthpiece is at the narrower end of the gourd. One of the pipes is a drone playing a single note, while the other plays the melody, with fingerholes that can be adjusted with wax to vary the pitch. They are often brightly painted. It is the traditional instrument used by snake charmers to control the snake by movement, as while snakes can sense sound, they cannot hear music.Edward F. GreenThe artist was the fifth son of John Green, a merchant in the Levant and his wife, Harriet. The Green family were prominent members of The Levant Company and the Maltese Consular Service. Edward Green’s dates have been incorrectly recorded, but family records indicate he was born on 11 January 1801, baptised on 14 July 1801 at St Botolph’s, Bishopsgate, London, and died in 1884.Green studied at the prestigious Royal Academy Schools in London, where his name appears in the records as Frederick Edward Green / E.F. Green. He was admitted as a probationary student on 11 January 1822, and registered as a full student on 4 April 1822, aged 21, for painting. Green was admitted to the life drawing school on 29 November 1822. He excelled at the Schools and won a silver medal in 1826, for a copy made in the painting school.The artist married Catherine Colona Stilon in Malta on 2 June 1840 and a daughter, Melita (Kate) was born to the couple on 30 April 1841. They had a second daughter Ellen Green. His brother, James Moring Green (the seventh son), was also an artist and Vice Consul of Naples. Two of his other brothers were Consul and Vice-Consul in Greece and this no doubt lies behind the number of interesting paintings he made of Greek subjects.After his wife’s death in 1845, Edward F. Green sold all his paintings, copies of Old Masters and curiosities at an auction by Foster Auctioneers, 54 Pall Mall (which was advertised in ‘The Atheneum’) and travelled to India. He is recorded as having lived in Bombay, now Mumbai, and evidently travelled in the surrounding area, and possibly, further afield. He stayed in India for three years, returning to Malta in 1848 for the funeral of his father-in-law, Dr Guiseppe Stilon, a Royal Naval Surgeon of Italian origin (whose will is in the National Archives, Kew).Green’s motivation to visit India is not known but it seems likely that it was influenced by the loss of his wife. Little is known about Green’s soujourn there, but he was an artist with a taste for travel and a journey to India would have appeared exciting and begun a new chapter in his life. British artists had been visiting India since William Hodges’ arrival in 1780 and the activities of the East India Company and the increased number of permanent British residents created a market for pictures both in India and the United Kingdom. With his eye for local customs and costumes, Green would have found a ready supply of colourful subjects to paint.Exhibition HistoryGreen exhibited regularly at the Royal Academy, showing 14 works between 1824 – 1851. He also showed 21 works at the British Institution and exhibited at the Society of British Artists. The artist specialised in exotic and orientalist subjects inspired by his extensive travels in Italy, Greece, Albania, Persia and India, and he specialised in painting particularly evocative oils by highlighting details of local costume and customs. His portrait of a Greek girl in a landscape wearing a Greek costume and embroideries was illustrated as a colour plate in Fani Maria Tsigakou, The Rediscovery of Greece, 1981, col. Pl. V, p. 194. He also worked as a portrait painter, a ready source of income, and in 1830 painted the portrait of Major-General Sir Robert Henry Dick (1785? – 1846), the soldier who lived in India. This was engraved as a mezzotint by Henry Haig circa 1847. A portrait of a young man by Green is in the collection of the Guildhall Art Gallery.His various addresses are recorded as 13 New Bond Street in 1824; at 65 Upper Charlotte Street in 1826; at 16 Howland Street in 1828 and 1829; at Upper Gloucester Place in 1837; all in London, at Strada Mercante in Valletta, Malta in 1840 and 1841; at 2 Titchfield Terrace in St. John's Wood in 1843; in Bombay, India in 1846 and at 17 Nottingham Street, London in 1851.Poona (Pune), MaharashtraPoona (now Pune) in Maharashtra was one of the major military bases of the British East India Company from 1818 after the fall of Peshwa during the third Anglo-Maratha War. A large military cantonment was built to the east of the city. Due to its milder climate, it was the monsoon capital for Bombay, situated almost two thousand feet up in the Western Ghats. It was one of the most important cities of the Bombay Presidency established in 1858 when India came under direct British rule.Poona had long been a place which British artists visited, from Thomas and William Daniell and James Wales in 1780s and 1790s. Wales founded an art school for local painters in the city in 1791 with the help of Sir Charles Ware Malet, British Resident at the Peshwa’s court, although the school ceased to exist after his death in 1795. William Carpenter (1818 – 1899) was in Poona around the same time as Edward Green and drew many watercolours of the city, its inhabitants and the surrounding area. William Simpson (1823 – 1899) also visited Poona towards the end of his time in India, once the railway had been extended there in 1858.

Inscribed verso: Malacca/where dear William died & was buried/Feby. 4th 1845, watercolour over traces of pencil, further inscribed again on original label, signed on the flyleaf of the album from which it comes13.8 x 23 cm.; 5⅜ x 9 inchesApollonia Griffith was a talented print maker and watercolourist. Her father was the London merchant Thomas Griffith of Ham Common, who had four children including her brother William, celebrated for his contribution to Indian botany.William studied medicine at London University, where his botanical interests developed. In 1832 he joined the East India Company as an assistant surgeon at Madras. After trips to Bhutan and Afghanistan, he took charge of Calcutta Botanic Garden in 1842. Only three years later he was to die at Malacca of hepatitis, leaving behind a widow, young child and three maiden sisters. A cenotaph was erected to commemorate him in the Botanic Garden in Calcutta.On his deathbed William asked fellow botanist John McClelland to sort through and publish his manuscript papers, and it is through these posthumous memoirs, journals of his travels on the Indian subcontinent published in 1847 with lithographs by Apollonia, that Griffith’s work is so widely known and celebrated. Her role is praised in the introduction to the memoirs:we owe the transfer of the landscapes to stone, which add so much to the appearance of the following volume, to the talent and kindness of his sister.

General Robert Clive receiving the homage of the Nawab Mir Jafar after the Battle of Plassey c.1761-2Oil on canvas, 20 x 203/4 ins. (50.8 x 60.5 cm)Inscribed indistinctly on stretcher: ‘F.M. Wor… RA’ 1ProvenancePrivate collection, U.S.A., until 2012Literature: Brian Allen, Francis Hayman (New Haven & London, 1987) p.123, 177, checklist no.101;The Raj-India and the British, National Portrait Gallery catalogue 1990, ill. p.32, fig.10This is probably a preliminary oil sketch by Hayman for the huge canvas (12 x 15 feet) which formed part of the series of four gigantic pictures illustrating glorious victories from the Seven Years War (1756-63) which were installed in the annex to the Rotunda at Vauxhall Gardens by the proprietor Jonathan Tyers (1702-67).Although much acclaimed at the time of their unveiling in the early 1760s, all four large pictures had disappeared from the Gardens by 1840 (they were almost certainly removed and probably destroyed by that date or soon after) but a lengthy description of the original large pictures was published in a contemporary guidebook to the gardens and in the London press and this source enabled the identification of a larger (presumably subsequent) preliminary sketch for the same subject which is now in the National Portrait Gallery.2 Another rougher version of this subject, was with Spink in the 1970s (K2 3992) and is now in a private collection in the U.K.The subject depicted is the meeting between the victorious General Robert Clive (1725-1774) and Mir Jafar, the Nawab of Bengal (c.1691(?)–1765) after the Battle of Plassey on 23 rd June 1757. Clive was extraordinarily successful in India and, on his return to England in 1760 with an enormous personal fortune, received huge critical acclaim.3In 1756 the Nawab of Oudh, Siraj-ud-Daula, (1733-1757) captured the East India Company’s settlement at Calcutta and imprisoned British captives in the infamous Black Hole. Robert Clive, in command of the Company’s army, recaptured Calcutta in January 1757 and then took the French fort at nearby Chandernagore in March. Clive then deposed Siraj, with the help of Mir Jafar at the Battle of Plassey.Mir Jafar’s rule is usually considered to be the start of British imperialism in India. He had effectively betrayed his predecessor Siraj ud-Dulah (1733-1757) who was killed soon after the battle, in order to become the next Nawab of Bengal. He gave a fortune of around £3 million to the East India Company, but in 1760 Mir Jafar was forced to abdicate in favour of his son-in-law Mir Qasim (d.1777). In 1763 Mir Jafar was restored with the full support of the Company for the remaining two years of his life. In 1764 Clive assumed supreme military and civil power in Bengal and forced the Mughal Emperor Sah ‘Alam to allow him to collect revenue (diwan) on his behalf.It is worth quoting at length from the rather exaggeratedly effusive contemporary description of the large lost picture since the author must have spoken with Hayman to elucidate the subject matter, if indeed the painter himself was not its author: ‘General Clive, after gaining the battle of Plassey in the East Indies, which restored the English interest that had been ruined in those parts of the world, found himself under a necessity of deposing the reigning Nabob; for that purpose sent from the field of battle for Meer Jaffer, a principal General under the Subah or Nabob, and an enemy to the French. Meer Jaffer sent for, seeing the General surrounded by his victorious troops under their arms, approaches him with every symptom of doubt and dissidence in his countenance. The General is represented in the attitude of Friendship, by extending his hands to receive him. Behind the General stands his Aid de Camp with his spontoon in his hand; as bold but as graceful a figure as can well be conceived, the British colours are display’d in the hands of another English officer, with the like appearance as the former, but all of them in different atitudes. A bold horse, supposed to be the General’s that seems startled at the sight of the elephant, closes to the fore ground of this compartment of the picture. It is but justice to the Painter to say, that no figures wereever better detached from the canvas than those are; that of the General, being the principal, is inimitably free, and in a most masterly stile of painting. The painter could with no propriety avoid representing the British figures in their uniform; but to prevent a sameness in the composition, he has with great judgment introduced the Indian groom in the habit of his country, which form a most happy contrast. Meer Jaffer wears on his face strong remains of the emotions already mentioned, but his dejection seems faintly alleviated by the General’s manner of receiving him. The extension of his arms and the inclination of his body is most movingly expressive of doubt, submission and resignation, which is heightened by an Indian officer laying the Subah’s standard at the General’s feet. The future Subah or Nabob is attended by his son, a youth of about eighteen years of age, bewitchingly handsome, and painted with a masterly propriety. The other Indian figures behind Meer Jaffer are those of his friends and officers, and the countenances of them all strongly partake of the inquietudes of their principal. This co[m]partment is terminated by an elephant on the background, which the greatest judges from the East-Indies say is the best they ever saw in a painting, both co[m]partments of the picture (for so they may be called on account of the diversity of the figures they exhibit) are drawn up around the scene of interview. The painter has here taken advantage of the various dresses of the Indians, which, as well as their arms and all their other attributes, are preserved with the utmost precision, to introduce a beautiful play of colours, without departing from propriety.’4 The other two versions and the present picture correspond closely to the published description except that there is no ‘Indian officer laying the Subbah’s standard at the General’s feet’ in either of the two other preparatory works, although the present work has a native with a box which may contain a folded standard. The present work also has a golden ladder and a chair on top of the elephant. Other minor differences between the preparatory works show Clive wearing his tricorn hat in both other versions but hatless in the present picture. In the present picture Mir Jafar is shown bowing more obsequiously than in the larger NPG picture. The NPG picture shows the red banner of the other two pictures turned into a British flag.A letter in the National Library of Wales (Robert Clive Papers H1/1-4) reveals that Clive visited Hayman’s studio on 26 April 1763 when Henry Clive paid 5s to ‘Mr Hamans the painter’. This is recorded in an account book in the handwriting of Henry Clive (1709-1775), who was a first cousin of Clive of India’s father. When Robert Clive came back from India for the second time in 1760, with his young cousinGeorge in attendance, cousin Henry, who was an attorney, seems to have become a kind of steward, travelling with the party and keeping this account book (Dr Charlotte Mitchell kindly shared this information by email in October 2018). This shows that Clive almost certainly commissioned a painting from Hayman and it seems highly likely that he saw the Vauxhall Gardens work and decided that he wanted one for himself.Despite never setting foot in India Hayman was among the first British artists to exploit Indian subject matter, a genre that was to become increasingly popular towards the end of the century in the hands of artists who did travel to the sub-Continent such as Zoffany and Tilly Kettle.1. There is no record of any Royal Academician corresponding to the inscription.2. See A Description of Vaux-Hall Gardens (London, 1762) bound into the end of the BritishLibrary’s copy. See also The Public Advertiser, no.8905 (20 May 1763) and The LondonMagazine, XXXII (May 1763) pp.233-4, quoted by Allen, Francis Hayman (see Literatureabove). The larger sketch in the NPG was correctly identified by Brian Allen as by Haymanwhen it was catalogued by Christie’s as ‘English School’ in an anonymous sale on 22 June 1979(162), bought by the National Portrait Gallery. This work had previously been misidentified asby the American Mather Brown (1761-1831) by Mildred Archer in India and BritishPortraiture 1700-1825 (London, 1979) p.419. For further details of the three other largehistorical pictures see Allen, op.cit., pp.62-93. See Mark Bence-Jones, Clive of India (London, 1975)4. See A description of Vaux-Hall Gardens (London, 1762) note 2 above.

KT487Signed with monogram l.l., watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour and gum arabic25.5 x 40 cm.; 10 x 15 ¾ inchesProvenanceSir Sacheverell Sitwell, Bt. (1897-1988);Francis Sitwell (1935-2004);By descent at Weston Hall, Northamptonshire until 2021Lear was invited to India by his friend and patron Lord Northbrook who was appointed Viceroy in 1871, and his journey there was the last and longest of his life. He was overwhelmed by the colour and vitality of India and enjoyed the bustle of Viceregal life. After leaving Lord Northbrook, Benares was one of the first places Lear visited, arriving on 12th December 1873.Lear describes Benares in his ‘Indian Journal’, on December 13-14 1873,(ed. Ray Murphy, 1953, pp. 45-6):‘Nothing short of a moving opera scene can give any idea of the intense and wonderful colour and detail of these Benares river banks…‘Got a boat, a large one, for on one can have the last idea of this Indian city’s splendour without this arrangement. Utterly wonderful is the rainbow-like edging of the water with thousands of bathers reflected in the river. Then the colour of the temples, the strangeness of the huge umbrellas and the inexpressibly multitudinous details of architecture costume etc. Drew, more or less, as I was slowly row’d up and down the river…Howe well I remember the views of Benares by Daniell, R.A.; pallid, gray, sad solemn. I had always supposed this a place of melancholy or at least a staid and soberly-coloured spot, a gray record of bygone days,. Instead, I find it one of the most abundantly bruyant, and startlingly radiant of places full of bustle and movement. ‘This drawing used to hang in Sir Sacheverell Sitwell’s study and dressing room at Weston Hall, Northamptonshire, where he did all his writing.

KT486Signed with monogram l.l. and dated 1875, watercolour over pencil heightened with white25.5 x 39.7 cm.; 10 x 15 ¾ inchesProvenanceLady d’Avigdor Goldsmid;Caroline Stroude;Francis Sitwell (1935-2004);By descent at Weston Hall, Northamptonshire until 2021Hardwar, also called Gange-dward, the Ganges Gate, lies on the right bank of the Ganges, where the Ganges exits the Himalayan foothills North-East of Delhi. It is one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindu and an important pilgrimage site, which hosts the Kumbh Mela festival once every twelve years. A dip in the river Ganges here is believed to wash away one's sins and according to Hindu mythology, it is one of the four places where the drops of elixir ('Amrit') were accidentally spilled by the celestial bird Garuda.Lear arrived there on 2 April 1874 and stayed with Mr Jenkinson, a relative of his friend the Viceroy, Lord Northbrook, who had invited him to visit India. Lear was enchanted by the city, and wrote in his ‘Indian Journal’, ed. Ray Murphy, 1953, p. 113:“The beauty of the pagodas and shrines and houses here is indescribable, and the whole scene is perhaps the most beautiful I have seen anywhere in India’.On 5 April Lear drew the ghats (op. cit. p. 114):“The tall silver gray temples in shade, a side bit here and there catching bright light, are really beautiful, often half seen through a veil of light green or yellow foliage. …The colours of dresses amazing, women in apricot coloured shawls, rose coloured, scarlet, brown, all throwing flowers into the river.’….the mountains came out comparatively clear before lunch, so that I could really get an outline of the upper range, snows and all.’ He and his manservant Giorgio left Hardwar on 6 April.Francis Sitwell, the businessman and publicist, was the son of Sir Sacheverell Sitwell, 6th Bt and his wife Georgia.

Signed l.r.: EFlorence Mason, watercolour49.5 x 32.5 cm.; 19 ½ x 12 ¾ inchesThe artist, who was known as Florrie, was born in Birmingham, and raised in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, the daughter of Robert Crump Mason a dispensing chemist.Mason studied at the Royal College of Art in London and was influenced for a time by the Pre-Raphaelites. She painted portraits, oriental and Indian subjects, decorative pictures and also worked as an illustrator.The artist left London and returned to Bromsgrove where she had an established artist’s practise by the age of 30 and taught art for a time at Howell’s School, Llandaff, Cardiff. She lived in London again later in life.She travelled to India and for a time was Honorary Secretary of the Ceylon Society of Arts.Mason’s work was exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, the Royal West of England Academy, the Royal Institute, The Cardiff Art Society, and the Birmingham Art Gallery. In 1921 she exhibited four works at the Society of Women Artists.Kailasanathar Temple in Srivaikuntam, a village in Tamil Nadu 30 km from Tirunelveli, is dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. The Dravidian temple has three precincts. Shiva is worshipped as Kailasanathar and his consort Parvati as Sivakami. A granite wall surrounds the temple, enclosing all its shrines. The temple has an unusual flat gateway tower, unlike other South Indian temples that have a pyramidal entrance tower. The temple was originally built by Chandrakula Pandya Vijayanagar and Nayak kings commissioned pillared halls, sculptures and major shrines in the temple during the 16th century.

Signed l.r.: Hugo VP, oil on canvas board, in an antique hardwood frame23 x 17.5 cm; 9 x 6 7/8 inchesFrame size 42 x 35 cm.; 16 ½ x 13 ¾ inchesSOLDLiteratureH. V. Pedersen, ‘Door den Oost-Indische archipel’, 1902, ill. p. 122This sitter is described in the artist’s book of 1902 as someone who worked for the Sultan of Deli in Medan, North Sumatra, at his annual party. It is a rare depiction of a servant portrayed with great sensitivity.Pedersen was born in Copenhagen in 1870. Having studied at the Academy of Arts in Copenhagen he travelled for 20 years in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Penang and Singapore. His older brother worked on a tobacco plantation in Sumatra and in 1898 he first visited Indonesia, travelling to Sumatra, Penang, Singapore, Java and Siam. He painted many portraits of native subjects which he clearly found interesting on his travels as well as landscapes and cityscapes. He worked for the Susuhunan (ruler) of Surakarta in Java, whose kraton or palace Von Pedersen visited (thanks to the Dutch Governor General) and whose portrait he painted and was subsequently given as a token of the Susuhunan’s loyalty to the Queen of the Netherlands. It is now in the Royal Dutch Collection.Eight of the artists’ paintings were published in 1926 in "Peeps at many lands" ed. by J.F. Scheltema.

Gouache and touches of gold, with a painted border24.5 x 20 cmProvenanceSam KenrickJaswant Singh (1838-1895) is seated in a classicised interior with a red curtain, a familiar feature of western portraiture.The sitter who ruled from 1873-1895, was a traditionalist who wore the famous family emeralds, seen here around his neck, at home, and enjoyed hunting in his own jungles.His reign was characterised by prosperity and judicial and administrative reforms. He developed the infrastructure of the state by introducing railways- the Jodphur State Railway- telegraphs and improving the roads.His brother, Pratab Singh, travelled to London where he met the Queen and started a new trend in breeches for horseman to be known as jodhpurs, named after the capital of the state.Upon Jaswant Singh’s death his favourite wife, Raiji, is said to have committed suttee, against imperial authority by the end of the 19th century.

Half-length, seated on a chair wearing a red Kashmir shawlOil on canvas, in original chinese carved and gilded frame, inscribed on label with the sitter’s name attached to the back of the frame27 x 22 cmThe sitter, known as the Mahratta Machiavelli, was the chief minister of the Peshwa administration in Poona who was painted several times by James Wales and J. T. Seton.Nana’s administrative, diplomatic and financial skills brought prosperity to the Maratha Empire during a period of political instability, and he successfully navigated dealings with the British East India Company.After the assassination of Peshwa Narayanrao in 1773, Nana managed the affairs of the empire with the help of a twelve-member regency council known as the Barbhai council of sardars or generals. The council was intended to protect Madhavrao II, the posthumous son of Narayanrao, born to his widow Gangabai, from the Peshwa family’s internal conflicts. The Maratha Empire, although weakened by the Panipat war of 1761, was still significant in size, with many vassal states under a treaty of protection, who recognised the Peshwa as the dominant power in the region.After Nana’s death, Peshwa Baji Rao II placed himself in the hands of the British, provoking the Second Anglo-Maratha War that began the breakup of the Maratha confederacy.The present portrait was presumably based on a print which made its way to China. The original has not been identified. Lamqua, or Guan Quiaochang, had a studio on China Street, Canton, where he worked following the style of George Chinnery quite closely (and undercutting his prices). The two artists knew each other well. Lamqua was a skilful artist who was well known amongst visitors, several of whom had accounts at his studio. His three-storey premises had a shop on the ground floor and a workshop above, where eight to ten painters worked, some making copies after western prints in oil or watercolours, others working on ivory or making pith paper watercolours. Lamqua had his own studio on the third floor. (See Patrick Connor, George Chinnery, 1993, chapter 17.)

SOLDSigned, inscribed and dated l.l.: P C Trench Ghazepoor July 1847, watercolour over traces of pencil22.2 x 28 cm.; 8 ¾ x 11 inchesUnframedPhilip Charles (later Chenevix) Trench was born in Dublin. He served as a civil servant in Bengal, retiring in 1871. He wrote A Sportsman in Ireland and illustrated the 1897 edition.Ghazipur, 135 miles west of Patna, was a centre of opium trade of the East India Company.Although only one dancer (at the back) seems to be wearing uniform, most of the young men are military officers from the town's cantonment, and the young women are likely t