Etta Fraser: Portrait of India 1887–1895
This watercolour forms part of a fascinating collection of pictures of life in India between 1887 and 1895 by Scottish artist Etta Fraser.
Etta was born Margaretta Ogle Bell-Irving at Milkbank, St Mungo, Dumfriesshire in 1853. The Bell-Irving family traced its history to lands near the border with England that were granted to Richard Irving in 1549, and to the union of Irving and Bell family properties through marriage in the mid 18th century. Etta's father was Henry Ogle Bell-Irving Sr (1820–1864), who spent the early years of his business life in Georgetown, British Guiana, and later engaged in the West Indian Business in Glasgow.
Members of the extended Bell-Irving family conducted business in China, India, and South America. Etta's brother Henry Ogle Bell-Irving (1856–1931) became a prominent and influential businessman in British Columbia, Canada. Henry Jnr is said to have been an accomplished watercolour artist—his paintings of the Canadian wilderness are housed in the British Columbia Provincial Archives in Victoria—and it appears that artistic talent ran in the family.
The easy privilege of Etta's early years was brought to an abrupt end in the early 1860s when the family faced bankruptcy, after a fire destroyed the warehouse on her father's West Indian plantation and with it his fortune. Not long later, Etta's father died, leaving her mother, Williamina, to raise seven children. In response Williamina took her young family to Germany where the cost of living was cheaper.
Little is known about the intervening years, but Etta's brother William Ogle Bell-Irving went out to India in 1874, and found success there are as a partner of the mercantile firm of Jardine, Skinner & Co, Calcutta and as President of the Bank of Bengal. Etta possibly followed William to India, and by 1887 we find her marrying Major Edward Alexander Fraser at St Paul's Church in Matheran. It appears that Edward was born in India, and rose through the ranks in the British Indian army to Lieutenant-Colonel in the Madras Staff Corps. He also held a position in the Political Department of the Government of India. Whilst it is unclear which prominent Fraser family in India Edward was associated with, he was quite clearly a descendent of the numerous sons of Scottish landowning families who went to India in order to make their fortune in the service of the East India Company.
These delicate watercolours are a fascinating record of a British woman's encounter with the Indian sub-continent in the late 19th century, with elements of rural village life—elephants, camels and oxen—as well as tents and temples, and a portrait of a rajput noble. Many of the locations are in the state of Rajasthan.
The collection also includes a self-portrait and three fascinating photographs. Two were taken when the Fraser family returned to Moffat, Dumfriesshire around the 1890s and show the ayah who they presumably brought from India to look after their young daughter.
