Studio RT Ltd

Description

We are offering this very minutely depicted watercolour from the days of the Raj by the artist George Russell Copcutt, who has signed the painting to the lower right and inscribed it underneath the figure 'Ladakhi'. The painting depicts a Ladakhi man in traditional costume, climbing a slope with a heavy load on his back.

Ladakh, which means land of high passes, is a region in the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir, that currently extends from the Siachen Glacier in the Karakoram range to the main Great Himalayas to the south, inhabited by people of Indo-Aryan and Tibetan descent.

George Russell Copcutt was born on the 16th May 1881 in Trimulgherry, Madras, in the south of India. He was the son of George William Copcutt, who was an instructor in the Government Telegraph Department, and his wife Mary, nee Russell. In 1912, he was living at 1, Ripon Street Calcutta, when he married Nina Mabel Debenham and they were to have one son. He was working in the Post and Telegraph Department. Unfortunately, it has proved impossible to discover any information about his art education, if any.

What we do know is that he must have travelled extensively within India, as he painted in Ladakh, Kashmir and Tibet to our knowledge, as paintings of people in those areas have been on the market by this talented, possibly amateur, artist. He died on 22nd August 1948 in Ootacamund, (now Ooty) and is buried in the cemetery of the church of St. Thomas there, which was built in 1867 and is still in use.

Other watercolours by this artist have been to auction, mostly with similar subject matter.

The painting has been newly double mounted in two tone acid-free mountboard to complement and is in its original 3/4" unpolished wooden frame, including on the backing board, a label from Cotton & Morris, The Exchange, Simla picture dealers and framers. It will be supplied wired and ready to hang.

Image size: 12" x 8 5/8" - 30.5cm x 21.9cm

Frame size: 19 1/4" x 15 1/4" - 48.8cm x 38.2cm

Medium: Watercolours on buff paper

Condition: Very good. There is no foxing or other defects. The frame is in very good condition and the mounts are new.