Near Tannah, Bombay Line

The Scottish artist-adventurer Constance Frederica Gordon-Cumming made her first trip abroad in 1868-70, to visit a half-sister in Calcutta. Here she represents the Western Ghats or Sahyadri Hills near the Indian city of Tanna (Thane). The horizontal format accentuates the sense of expanse and mountains silhouetted against a bright sky. Water below is the flow of the Ulhas River towards the city. Two boats are moored near the shore, and others sailing in the distance, help to establish scale. Wet and dry effects, sponging and blotting have been combined to masterly effect by the artist and are used to contrast rocky forms with the luminous sky and rising mist. The twenty=one miles of railway that the artist traveled when she made this work was India’s first, opened in 1854 to link Bombay (Mumbai) to Tanna. By 1870, the line had been extended another 410 miles to Raichore (Raichur). Since the artist's sister Emilia lived on the other side of the subcontinent, this watercolor demonstrates Gordon-Cumming extensive travels within India.