#MC46
1899
Grisaille watercolour on cardboard, heightened in white, ca. 16x21 cm (ca. 6 ¼ x 8 ¼ in), within hand drawn ink frame. Signed in watercolour on the lower margin, printed title (cut out of the magazine) tipped to the lower edge. From a sketch by F.C. Dickinson. Ink stamp “2 Nov 99” on verso. A very good watercolour.
The watercolour was prepared for publication in “The Graphic” and shows a scene from the early period of the Second Boer War (11 October 1899 – 31 May 1902). A British soldier offers a cigarette to an East Indian sailor while on a P. & O. (The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company) ship bound for South Africa, where the war had started a month before.
Percy Frederick Seaton Spence was an Australian artist, famous for his graphic works made for several noted Australian and British magazines (Sydney Daily Telegraph, Illustrated Sydney News, Punch, Black and White, The Graphic, et al.). He exhibited in the Royal Art Society of New South Wales, and the Royal Academy of Arts (RA); his works are held by the National Gallery (London), State Library of New South Wales, the University of Sydney and the High Court of Australia, Canberra (Wikipedia).
