Justinian Walter Gantz

KT591

Watercolour over traces of pencil

32 x 47 cm.; 12 5/8 x 18 ½ inches

Provenance

Spink, London, ‘A Journey through India- Pictures of India by British Artists’, 9 October-1 November 1996, no. 30;Sotheby’s, London, 8 June 2000, lot 69;Private collection, U.K. until 2023

Justinian Gantz, described in the East India Gazette as 'Miniature Painter', was the son of the artist John Gantz. In addition to their work as draughtsmen for the East India Company, they may have practised as architects and ran a family lithographic press in Popham's Broadway, Chennai (M. Archer, British Drawings in the India Office Library, 1969, I, p.49, and J.R. Abbey, Travel in Aquatint and Lithography, 1957, II, no.445). Seven watercolours by Justinian Gantz of European houses in Chennai dating from 1832-1841 are in the collection of the British Library (M. Archer, op.cit., II, pp.604-606).

The fortress of Gooty was an important British stronghold 269 miles from Chennai and 44 miles east of Bellary. It comprised a number of strong works, connected with each other on the summits of a cluster of hills and enclosing a space of level ground where the town was situated. Two fortified gateways gave access to the town to the south-west and north-west. A huge smooth rock to the north of the circle of hills ascended through 14 gateways and fortifications to form a citadel.

This work was part of a group of views of southern India by Justinian and John Gantz included in the Spink exhibition in 1996.