John Bellasis Watercolour titled Cuckoo Well and dated 1842

Bellasis, John Brownrigg, Major, 19th Bombay Infantry.  A watercolour on paper, 17½ x 13½ ins. The watercolour is unusual among the group of his paintings which we aquired a few years ago in being dated and including figures wich have some identification. The scene, identified in the artist’s neat hand Cuckoo Well 1842, shows a very lerge expanse of water with a few small islands and a small sailing vessel. To the left of centre a European couple survey the scene, the gentleman smoking a cheroot and the smartly dressed lady rests her hand on his shoulder. The figures are identified with initials as L & J and may be thought to be the artist and his lady. Many of JBB’s paintings of the early 1840s were painted in the area of Ahmedabad. There are the usual minor edge chips to the paper and two closed tears to the upper left edge near the  skyline.

 As a Bombay Army officer most of the artist’s work was done in Western India and in the lands of the old Bombay Presidency.    dec16/1

Major John Brownrigg Bellasis [c. 1806- 1890] was commissioned into the East India Company’s Bombay Army in the 10th Native Infantry in 1822 and remained with that regiment for most of his career until becoming a lieutenant colonel when  he moved first to the 8th and then served in several regiments. He was on furlough during much of 1841 & 1842 and it is this period when he seems to have been painting most consistently. He came from a military family, his father, also John, being a major general commanding the Bombay Artillery around the time of his birth. The East India Register 1825 when John Brownrigg Bellasis was an ensign in the 10th shows Jonathan Hutchins Bellasis was a  captain in the same regiment, probably an elder brother, and Edward H. Bellasis was Private Secretary to the Governor.