Jane Hester Ricketts Boat on Karnaphuli River, Chittagong, Bengal

Mary Ann Letitia Buckland née Ricketts (1827–1908): Bengal British India

This picture forms part of an interesting collection of works relating to British India and the Ricketts / Mildmay / Buckland family in the 19th century. The majority of the works in the collection are by Mary Ann Letitia Buckland née Ricketts (1827–1908); other artists include her sister Jane Hester Ricketts (1824–1897), her uncle Carew Mildmay Ricketts (1793–1849) and her nephew Percy Edward Ricketts DSO MVO (1868–1940).

The pictures in the collection comprise quintessential British landscape watercolours and also Indian landscapes in the Bengal area. Together they embody the dual identity experienced by many British residents in India in the 19th century, particularly the Anglo-English, who were born and raised in India and may have spent very little time in Britain. Amongst the pictures are a number of ambiguous landscapes that look neither quite British nor quite Indian—perhaps Bengali subjects anglicised through a British lens, or remembered British subjects, attenuated by a life spent in India.

Mary Ann Rickett was born at Burdwan in Bengal, the daughter of Sir Henry Ricketts, a distinguished East India Company officer who from the 1820s to the 1850s worked as Collector of Balasore, Commissioner of Cuttack and with the Calcutta Revenue Board. In 1845 Mary Ann married Charles Thomas Buckland (1824–1894) at Chittagong. Buckland was an Etonian and graduate of Haileybury who arrived in India in 1844. He held a succession of high appointments, including Commissioner of Dhaka in 1864, culminating in becoming a member of the Board of Revenue and the Lieutenant- Governor's Council, and Chairman of the Calcutta Port Trust. He was also first president of the Calcutta Zoological Gardens, sharing an interest in natural history with his cousin, the naturalist Frank Buckland (1826–1880).

The Indian pictures in the collection principally comprise views around Chittagong by Mary Ann and her sister Jane Hester, which bring a picturesque hand to Indian subjects—recording temples, elephants and 'jungle' views. With charm and sensitivity these women's works capture something of the Anglo-Indian experience during the Raj.