British passion for travel.

If there is something that has always characterised the British it is their passion for travelling. In the past, British travellers even modelled with their writings the vision that many others would have of the countries they visited, including Spain, and some of those stereotypes remain even today. That passion for travelling around the world means that, occasionally, artworks from other distant cultures arrive at Portobello Road Market. I found some of those 'travelling paintings', one of them on January 4, 2020. 

It was a copy of a Mughal court miniature painting. It was handmade in opaque watercolour applied to the sheet of an antique manuscript. The size of the painting is 110 x 170 mm (paper 137 x 215 mm). The manuscript leaf itself bears no relation to the scene depicted, and it is quite old, dating from the 18th or 19th century, and probably written in India, the country of origin of this artwork. Although the sheet of paper may be somewhat aged, the painting is, on the contrary, rather more new, probably from the first half of the 20th century, and reflects a very common fraudulent practice for the Indian tourist market, the production-imitation of Mughal Art as a souvenir for the tourist, a practice that originated around the 1930s.

This painting depicts the Mughal Durbar, an enthronement scene typical of the late 16th and 17th Century. The Mughal Durbar, or Royal Assembly, was the forum where the emperor conducted business of the Mughal Empire. He appears adorned with fine clothing, jewellery and ceremonial weapons, and surrounded by regalia symbolising his power and royal duties, colourful costumes, decorated courtiers and striking Mughal architecture. These miniatures valued colour and extreme detail over shading and realistic perspective, giving figures a static appearance, frozen in positions that emphasize their two-dimensionality.

The Mughal or Mogul Empire ruled most of India and Pakistan in the 16th and 17th centuries. From the early years of the 16th century, the Middle East was divided between the Safavid state in Iran and the Ottoman empire in the Eastern Mediterranean. The Mughal dinasty was the third great islamic power of this period, and they were great patrons of art, using it to underpin their political position. Mughal paintings, known locally as 'musawwari', were a blend of Indian, Persian and Islamic styles. They were a private and intimate art, produced by a small group of skilled artists. The subjects of these paintings were usually secular in form and covered a wide range of topics that included court scenes, battle scenes, hunting scenes as well as portraitures. In the golden age of the Mughal Empire, from 1556 to 1658, painting was an art of the book. "Musawwari" were small, brightly coloured and highly detailed paintings mostly used to illustrate manuscripts and art books. Favorite projects included the fanciful illustration of popular romances, royal histories, Hindu and Muslim mythologies, morality tales, and mystical poetry. Also popular were folios recording court life, royal portraits, exotic flora and fauna, and hunting and garden scenes. Illustrations were adorned with rich borders and immaculate calligraphy. 

The most important function of "musawwari" was illustration. It gave a visual image to the literary plot, making it more enjoyable and easier to understand. They were designed to be looked at in an album, and passed from hand to hand in court. Despite their tiny sizes, they are incredibly precise, with some lines painted using brushes composed of a single hair. Under the later Mughals, painting followed similar models but became more static. After the colonial period "musawwari" was known as “miniature painting”. The history of contemporary miniature painting is rooted in the history of colonialism in India. The British succeeded the Mughals as rulers of India. They introduced the western conception of “fine art” over “applied art”. In 1872, the British founded the Mayo School of Industrial Arts in Lahore in order to stimulate the production of local crafts for the purpose of international trade. Under British patronage, miniature painting was viewed as an exotic product. Local artists were encouraged to copy portraits of the Great Mughals alongside dancing girls with hookahs and other stereotypical scenes. After the partition of India and Pakistan, the Mayo School was reorganized as the National College of Arts (NCA). The traditional art forms previously taught at the school disappeared, with miniature painting barely subsisting. However, over the last two decades, the work of graduating students remains in demand from international dealers and collectors.

 

Another 'travelling artwork' I found at Portobello Road was View of the Savior on Spilled Blood Church from the Griboedov Canal,  St Petersburg, Russia (c. 1990), an original watercolour on paper glued on board, with the Kazan Cathedral on the left. The painting is signed on the mount by Herminio? Enro? MB. The size of the image is 28.8 cm x 8.7 cm. I acquired it on 14 February 2020.

St. Petersburg, Russia, emerged from the vision of one man, Czar Peter the Great, at the beginning of the 18th century and was the country’s capital for 200 years, until the Russian Revolution. Pushkin called it Russia's "window to Europe," and like Venice and Amsterdam, two cities that inspired Peter, the city was built on a network of canals. The famous Griboyedov Canal in St. Petersburg (known as the Ekaterininsky Canal before 1923) crosses through the Nevsky Prospect, the main street in the city of St. Petersburg, right by the Kazan Cathedral.

Orthodox Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ, also known as the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, was built on the site where, on 1 March 1881, Emperor Alexander II was mortally wounded. The church was built by order of the Emperor Alexander III in 1883-1907 as a monument to the assassinated emperor, raising funds throughout Russia. It is standing in the historic center of Saint Petersburg on the banks of Griboedov Canal near the Mikhailovsky Garden. The church is 81 meters high. 

That watercolour was accompanied by a brightly coloured hand-painted etching, 'Mockba', depicting St. Basil's Cathedral and Moscow's Red Square, in Russia. The artwork was dated in 1998, and signed in pencil as Fresnob.

Mockba (1998), by Fresnob.

The title, in Russian, and the full name of the author, Lygommik Fresnob Bukrop, appeared on the back of the engraving, of whom I could not find any record, at least in English.

 

Another painting that travelled from a distant country to Portobello Road was Scene in a Moroccan Medina, an original watercolour on paper signed and undated. I found it at the Golborne flea market on 28 February 2020.

Sometimes the artists of these 'travelling artworks' are not local, but the British travellers themselves. Perhaps this is the case with an oil on panel signed by K C Lynch and dated 1981. I purchased it on 17 January 2020. It depicts the coastal landscape of some island of volcanic origin, perhaps Lanzarote in Spain.

Coastal landscape by K C Lynch (1981).

So far I have not been able to find any reference to a British painter with this name. I have only found a K C Lynch who lives in Tigard, Oregon, in the United States of America. He is a writer/director of corporate films, a photographer and occasional painter.

 

Other artworks found at Portobello Road did not travel that far, but are also souvenirs of past travels. It is the case of a small original watercolour signed by W. Freeborn, "The Pleasure Grandens from Pier Approach. Bournemouth" (1907), from the Edwardian period. Its dimensions are 140 x 90 mm (image), 182 x 137 mm (paper). I acquired this tiny painting on 27 December 2019. 

 

The Victorian period saw Bournemouth’s population boom in size, due to its reputation as a health resort coupled with the arrival of the railway in the latter half of the century. With the continued industrialisation of the country, many Victorian holidaymakers sought to escape from the soot and polluted air of the cities and travel to coastal areas for clean air and the health benefits that came with it. When the railway arrived in 1870, Bournemouth was able to attract significantly more holidaymakers from London as well as from further afield, such as Birmingham and Nottingham.

 

The Pleasure Gardens in Bournemouth, Dorset, were originally a series of garden walks. They were created in the fields of the owners of the Branksome Estate in the 1860s. By the 1870s the fields had been leased to the Bournemouth Commissioners. Brookside Cottage is an italianate stucco villa (circa 1850), now part of the White Hermitage Hotel. Famous poet John Keble stayed there from October 1865 and died there in March 1866. The White Hermitage Hotel was originally a boarding house known as 'The Brookside'. In 1891 Victorian novelist and poet Thomas Hardy used 'The Brookside' as the setting for his murder scene in his novel 'Tess of the d'Urbevilles'. In 1928 the Boarding house became known as 'The White Hermitage'. In the 1980's the hotel's name changed to 'The Hermitage'.

In the next post I will talk about another of the passions of British people, the horses, showing a small watercolour I found at one of the stalls in Golborne Road.