Elephants drinking in a river in Sri Lanka, with men in turbans seated upon their backs. Watercolour by A. Nicholl, 18--.

1800-1899

1 painting : watercolour ; sheet 46.3 x 73.3 cm

The two watercolours by Nicholl acquired by Queen Victoria are described in the Royal Collection as "Ceylon: esplanade and fortification of Colombo" (RCIN 921948, 39.0 x 69.8 cm) and "Ceylon: the Pont de Galle" (RCIN 921949, 48.6 x 69.5 cm). Substantial collections of his Ceylon drawings were offered for sale at Bonham's, Knightsbridge, 7 June 2002, lot 67 (sketches from the collections of Sir James Emerson Tennent, the patron of Andrew Nicholl) and at Sotheby's, London, 12 June 2003, lots 169-199. Finished watercolours of Ceylon, comparable with the present example, were offered for sale at Bonham's, Knightsbridge, 7 February 2018, lots 57 (A river landscape, Ceylon, 50.2 x 72.4 cm) and 58 (Elephants watering amongst water lilies, Ceylon, 48.2 x 72.4 cm). A finished watercolour of "The lighthouse and harbour, Galle, Ceylon" (51.5 x 64.8cm) was sold at Christie's, South Kensington, 24 April 2013, lot 202

A. Nicholl R.H.A.

Wellcome Collection 565580i

Andrew Nicholl, born in Belfast,went from London to Ceylon in 1846. "Nicholl seems to have returned to London by 1849, as he exhibited views of Ceylon in the Royal Academy that year. For many years he wrote light pastoral verse, some of which was published in the Dublin University Magazine. From the 1850s the chronology of Nicholl's life is hard to establish, as he rarely dated his work; however, he clearly continued to shuttle between London and Belfast. In 1870 he submitted twelve watercolours of Ceylon scenes to Queen Victoria, who bought two of them" (Oxford dictionary of national biography)