Portraits of British Aden

[Protectorate of Aden]. [Sketchbook of watercolour views of Aden].

€ 28.000,00

A series of very fine original watercolours of 19th century Aden, painted by a British soldier stationed in Aden and Karachi, about 1875.

The population of Aden appears in a series of landscape paintings and especially in portraits, almost all of which appear to be plein-air candids. These show Jewish merchants of feathers and woven rattan, Somalis fetching water or at work, and Arab men and women strolling in elaborate traditional dress, from a frowning workman to an "Arab of distinction" clasping a sword in one hand, the hilt of a fine golden dagger tucked into his belt. Each is clearly sketched from the likeness of an individual person, with distinct features and personalities. Pencil notes in the margins even sometimes describe the subject: "An Elderly Arab Maiden - rather bashful" reads one.

One of the portraits is in fact captioned and signed in Persian by its sitter, the secretary ("munshi") Seyyed Vahid Ali of the port of Aden, dated 1875 CE and 1292 H. As a secretary of this kind, Seyyed Vahid Ali would have been highly educated and literate, an adept translator and interpreter with an understanding of regional politics. He may have been one of the many "munshi" employed by the British since the earliest incursions of the East India Company in the subcontinent, or he may have had his own work in Yemen.

The artist behind the sketchbook was a British soldier of the 113 Locating Battery of the Royal Artillery, likely by the surname Russell (as judged by the letters addressed to Russell's widow, laid in). Evidently Russell was stationed in Yemen and India, as several of the paintings at the end of the sketchbook show similar scenes of Karachi and its inhabitants. Throughout, the quality of draghtsmanship is excellent, and the personalities and landscapes of 1870s Aden are depicted vividly and sympathetically.