Frame size: 29.5 x 35.6 cm
This is one of a pair of paintings by Thomas Worlich Stansfeld, an amateur artist who rose to the rank of Colonel in the Madras Staff corps. Stylistically, these artworks show the transposition of the English landscape tradition onto the Asian environment. The landscape is shown as sedate and “domesticated”: a path recedes from the foreground towards the artists’ home, which is at the focal point of the composition. The image is framed by trees, following the nineteenth-century conventions of the picturesque. Although the artist is an amateur, the artworks are accomplished in conveying a tranquil atmosphere. This artwork provides a interesting contrast to the type of nineteenth-century representations which emphasise the exoticism of the Asian landscape.
