Constance Frederica Gordon-Cumming Fort Frederick from Trincomalee

Badulla from Allugollehella, alias Castle Cumming Signed, inscribed and dated l.r.: Badulla from Allugollehella/alias Castle Cumming/Namamakuli Kanda Range/CFGC-/Aug. 25th 73 and signed by James Whittaker Gibson, watercolour over pencil ‘Badulla, the capital of Uva, a very pretty little town in the midst of a grassy and well-wooded and well-watered plain, about 2,200 feet above the sea-level, and surrounded on every side by fine hills of very varied form. There is a considerable amount of rice culture round the town, which seems like an island crested with cocoa-palms rising from a sea of velvety green’, Two Happy Years, p. 335. Badulla is in southern central Sri Lanka.

Signed, inscribed and dated l.r.: Cave on the Island/of Elephanta/Dec 9th. 69 and further signed by another, watercolour over pencil. The artist visited the famous Hindu temple carved into the rockface on the island of Elephanta. Constructed between the fifth and sixth century, the temple is part of the ‘City of Caves’ devoted to the cult of Shiva. For further work by this artist please see the catalogue link and enquire about availability.

Signed, inscribed and dated l.r.: Ruins of the Temple at the furthest/point of Dondra Head. Southernmost point/of Ceylon. CFGC./Nov 7th/1873, and signed by Isabel Lloyd Hill, H Lloyd Hill, Edward Elliott, Mary Emily Elliott, and various others, numbered l.l.: 138A. watercolour and pencil 35.5 x 50.5 cm.; 14 x 19 ¾ inches This was one of many beautiful sunsets witnessed by the artist in Ceylon. Dondra is on Sri Lanka’s south coast, east of Matara.

Watercolour over pencil 36.5 x 57.5 cm.; 14 ½ x 22 ¾ inches This is a study for a larger watercolour of this subject, which formed part of this collection and is now in the British Library. Adam’s Peak is about 85 miles east of Colombo.

Selsdon Park, near Croydon Signed, inscribed and dated l.r.: Selsdon Park/C.F.G.C./1864, watercolour over pencil 35.1 x 50.5 cm.; 13 ¾ x 19 ¾ inches The house was owned by the Smith banking family from 1809 - 1877. George Smith (1765-1836) and his wife Frances, née Moseley, had fifteen children. Frances (1832 - 1922), the daughter of their second son, Oswald, married Claude, 13th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne (1824 - 1904) in 1853; they were the paternal grand parents of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. The artist may have been introduced to Selsdon Park through this Scottish connection. Selsdon Park still stands, although it was significantly altered around 100 years ago, when it was converted into an hotel.

Kandy Railway passing Kaduganawa Signed, inscribed and date l.r.: Kandy Railway passing Kaduganawa/Allegalla Peak-/Turret Rock in the distance./looking S.W./July 26.73/CFG.C. and also signed by Bessie Farr, Thomas Farr and H. Williamson, watercolour over pencil 35.5 x 50.5 cm.; 14 x 19 ¾ inches The artist met Bessie Farr on the voyage out to Ceylon and spent time with her and her husband Tom at their home at Oolanakanda. She wrote that ‘perched at the base of the mighty crag which crowns Allagalla Peak, that home was in a sheltered nook embosomed in fruit-trees, and overlooking such a magnificent view as we may sometimes obtain for a few moments by climbing some mighty Alp, but which few homes can claim as their perpetual outlook’, Two Happy Years, p. 159. The view of the train from their house ‘labouring on its tortuous up-hill course, winding round the steep hillside. It was so far below us that it seemed like a fairy’s toy’. Alagalla Peak is the highest point of the Alagalla Mountain Range, standing at almost 4,000 feet, on the rail route from Colombo to Kandy, in southern Sri Lanka. Eka Gordon-Cumming took this single broad-gauge line train line in the spring of 1874, noting that the uniform gradient while rounding the flank of Alagalla was one in forty five. She spent some time in the area before moving on to Kandy, enjoying ‘happy days and weeks spent exploring many a lovely corner in that vast panorama’.

Vaulted Hall under the Terrace, Heidelberg, Germany Inscribed and dated l.l.: Vaulted Hall under the Terrace. Heidelberg/Sep 21st/1865, watercolour over pencil with bodycolour on blue paper 17.2 x 25.5 cm.; 6 ¾ x 10 inches Heidelberg Castle is one of the most important Renaissance buildings in Northern Europe. The residence of the Counts Palatine of the Rhine dates back to 1225 and was largely rebuilt in the sixteenth century. It was badly damaged by the French army in the course of the War of the Grand Alliance, or the Nine Year’s War (1688 - 1697), and was finally ruined by two devastating lightening strikes in 1764.

Corner of the Band of the Tank, Tapawewa, Polanarua (Polonnaruwa), looking to the Matele hills Signed, inscribed and dated l.l.: Corner of the Band of the Tank (Tapawewa)/(Polanarua)/looking to the Matele hills./Kandy/Sept 19th 73./CFGC/117, watercolour and pencil 15.7 x 50.5 cm.; 6 ¼ x 19 ¾ inches Polonnaruwa is in North Central Sri Lanka.

The Rock of Gibraltar and the Sierra Nevada Inscribed and dated l.r.: Rock of Gibraltar and /The Sierra Nevada/Nov. 1868/C.F.G.C., watercolour over pencil with touches of white 22.7 x 53.3 cm.; 9 x 21 inches

Oil on paper laid down on board, inscribed on reverse of board: George Mason ARA and stamped with a Christie’s stencil 21 x 21 cm.; 8 ¼ x 8 ¼ inches Provenance The artist’s studio sale, Christie’s, 15 February 1873, lot 91, where bought by George Dunlop Leslie, RA (1835-1921); his daughter Lydia Leslie, By descent to T. L. Twidell Exhibited Stoke-on-Trent Museum & Art Gallery, George Heming Mason, 1982, cat. no 20 (ill) (lent by T.W. Twidell). Exhibited George Heming Mason, City Museum & Art Gallery, Stoke-on-Trent, 1 May – 12 June 1982; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 26 June – 31 July, The Fine Art Society, London 9 August – 4 September, cat. 20 (ill.) The sympathetic white horse is yoked in the Italian manner in this lively oil sketch and can be presumed to have been executed in Italy.