Attrib. Henry Brabazon Urmston Our 'Lodge' at Dalhousie, India

An original 1861 watercolour painting, Attrib. Henry Brabazon Urmston, Our 'Lodge' at Dalhousie, India.

A fascinating watercolour attributed to Henry Brabazon Urmston (fl.1860). The subject indicated on the verso of the painting is 'Our "Lodge" at Dalhousie, July 23 1861'. A European woman can be seen ascending the path at the right and a young girl is on a swing at the left, overseen by local servants.

Henry Brabazon Urmston served in the Bengal Army 1847–74. He held various positions, including Assistant Commissioner in the Punjab with special duty in Kashmir during 1857, and Deputy Commissioner in Peshawar, Bannu, Sialkot, Amritsar and Rawalpindi. In 1850 he married Harriett Elizabeth Hughes (1828–1897), who had arrived in India earlier that year as a Christian missionary—a calling to which she was to devote her life in both India and later in the UK. Her mission was not to the people of India, but initially to the wives of the soldiers. Her meetings attracted the husbands too and she was known as 'Holy Mary'. After their return to the UK in 1875 due to ill health, she spent years—unusually for a woman—preaching in support of the Zenana Bible and Medical Missionary Society.

This watercolour is one of a group of three that we have for sale, which stylistically are very similar to Henry Brabazon Urmston's work. A collection of his watercolours sold at Christie's in 1997, detailing Urmston's movements through India, and they included two views at Dalhousie. In the present watercolour, the woman pictured at the right is probably Harriett and the child at the left, one of their daughters; the Urmstons had eight children—in 1861 they would have had two daughters aged eight and three.

Two figure drawings by Urmston are held in the India Office Library, London.

There is a partial ink sketch of a lodge on the verso.