Anon. Rock Cave Dwellings with Spearsmen, Possibly India

An original early 19th-century watercolour painting Rock Cave Dwellings with Spearsmen, Possibly India.

A beautiful drawing on blue laid paper in grey wash and white bodycolour. The distinctive landscape, with rock cave dwellings cut into a steep hillside and small turbaned soldier figures with spears, is most likely in India or possibly the Near East. It is unclear whether this is an observed view or something of a confection.

On the verso of the paper is an Italianate fresco-style arched composition with what appear to be figures in prayer and a putto.

The age of the paper and style of drawing indicate a date around the early years of the 19th century.

The drawing derives from the collection of renowned British drawings and watercolours dealer William Drummond (Covent Garden Gallery, London) and is designated OMD (Old Master Drawing) on the verso of the backing. The backing also bears the indistinct attribution 'Callcott?', which possibly refers to the artist-traveller Lady Maria Callcott.

Callcott lived in India as a young lady between 1809 and 1810, when her naval father was put in charge of the East India Company’s dockyard in Bombay. She met her first husband, Thomas Graham, a young Scottish naval officer, here and she travelled widely in India India, going as far north as Kashmir and south into Sri Lanka (then Ceylon). In 1811 the Grahams returned to England and Maria turned her notes and drawings into her first book, 'Journal of a Residence in India' published in 1812, followed in 1814 by 'Letters on India'.

She went on to live in Italy and Chile, staying on in South America despite the death of her husband. On her return to England she went on to marry the painter Augustus Wall Callcott and her lodgings very quickly became a focal point for London's intellectuals and artists.

She produced numerous other illustrated publications, including 'Journal of a Residence in Chile during the Year 1822. And a Voyage from Chile to Brazil in 1823'; 'Journal of a Voyage to Brazil, and Residence There, During Part of the Years 1821, 1822, 1823'; 'Voyage Of The H.M.S. Blonde To The Sandwich Islands, In The Years 1824–1825', and 'A short history of Spain', 1828.

Grey wash and white bodycolour on blue laid paper. There are remnants of a historic brown paper border at the upper and right edges. The drawing is accompanied by (but separate from) its historic cream paper backing which bears the Drummond annotations.

Provenance: William Drummond (Covent Garden Gallery, London).