Beschreibung:

Constance Frederica Gordon-Cumming (1837-1924) was born at Altyre, Scotland on the 26th May 1837, the twelfth child of Sir William Gordon Gordon-Cumming's sixteen children. Her father, chief of the Scottish clan Comyn, was an amateur painter and patron of the arts and Constance was encouraged to develop her artistic talents from a very early age. In her autobiography Constance recalls her family's hobby of searching for fossils and then making accurate watercolour studies of these, the best of which were sent to and accepted by the British Museum in London. She also recalls the frequent visits of well-established artists such as Sir Edwin Landseer and Sir William Ross In 1867 Constance received an invitation to join a married sister and her husband living in India who were planning to spend a year travelling around the north of the country. Constance accepted the invitation taking with her plentiful supplies of paint and paper. She reached Calcutta on the 23rd of December, 1868 and spent the next twelve months travelling: 'Always with pleasant companions, old residents who had made India the home of a lifetime. I was taken from city to city, always with leisure for painting some of the most striking scenes...I secured upwards of 100 very interesting large pictures'. (C.F.Gordon-Cumming, Memories , London, 1904, p.199). In 1869 Constance returned to Europe having discovered a passion for travel awoken by her first trip abroad. She did not remain in England long and in the autumn of 1872 accepted an invitation from Rev. Willoughby Jeremy, the Bishop of Colombo, to pay him an extended visit in Sri Lanka. She remained in Sri Lanka for two years travelling throughout the island with the Bishop and his daughter and spending much of her time painting watercolours. Constance returned to Britain in 1874, having executed several hundred watercolours: 'I brought away several hundred very careful paintings of exceeding interest which...were borrowed and framed for exhibition by the representatives of these colonies at the great Indian and Colonial Exhibitions in London, Glasgow and elsewhere.' (C.F.Gordon-Cumming, Memories , London, 1904, p.213). Constance's desire to travel led to extensive wanderings over the next 10 years. She visited Fiji, New Zealand, Tahiti, Japan, North America, Hawaii and China. Constance's later years were devoted to the teaching of a numeral version of braille to the illiterate Chinese in the Mandarin speaking districts of China. Constance died on September 4, 1924 Constance Frederica Gordon-Cumming (1837-1924) The Thuparama Dagoba at Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka signed, inscribed and dated 'C F Gordon Cumming. June 14 1873'/'The Thuparama Dagoba. Anarajapoora ( sic ) built by King Tissa about B.C. 300. to receive the right collar bone of Buddha. It is surrounded by 128 columns. the 52 nearest the Dagoba being 20 feet high. To the left lies the Dalada Maligawa where the sacred tooth rested on its arrival from India. AD. 400' and further inscribed with the signatures of the artist's travelling companions 'W.H. Gregory L Gregory/Simpson (?) /May Cameron (J.N.O. Dent-Young H.C Stuart E H Cameron'; pencil, pen and ink and watercolour heightened with white and gum arabic, unframed 19 1/8 x 29in. (486 x 753mm.)