A troop of cavalry or a hunting party in an extensive rocky landscape

European School, perhaps working in Persia, second half of the 19th Century

Footnotes

Provenance
Probably Henry Davis Willock (1830-1903), Civil Officer in India between 1852 and 1884, and son of Sir Henry Willock (1790-1858), British Envoy to Persia, 1815-1826, and Chairman of the East India Company, 1844–45 (label on stretcher).
Formerly in the collection of the late Oliver Watson (1949-2023), Emeritus Professor of Islamic Art and Architecture and curator of Islamic Art at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford and the School of Oriental Studies, London.
Mallams, Cheltenham, Asian, Indian and Islamic Art, 6th November 2024, lot 302.

Henry Davis Willock (1830–1903), born in Persia, was one of four sons of Sir Henry Willock (1790–1858), who had been British Envoy to Persia at a crucial time in relations between the two nations, and subsequently Chairman of the East India Company. H. D. Willock was educated at East India College, Haileybury (March 1850–December 1851). Appointed to the civil service, he arrived in India in 1852, and was posted to the North-West Provinces. Joint magistrate of Allahabad on the outbreak of the Mutiny, he commanded a company of volunteers, As civil officer he volunteered with Major Renan's force for the relief of the Cawnpore garrison (which fell before its arrival), and served with the force subsequently commanded by Havelock. He was in the actions of Fatehpur, Pandu Nudi, Maharajpur, and Cawnpore, being one of the first persons to enter the Beebeegarh in which the British women and children had been slaughtered by order of the Nana Sahib.

Willock accompanied Havelock on his two unsuccessful advances to Lucknow; was with Outram and Havelock in their subsequent relief of the residency, and served as a member of the garrison until the final relief by Sir Colin Campbell (Lord Clyde) in November 1857 field force watching the southern borders of Oudh, being present at the capture of the Tirhol and Dehaen forts. General Sir Mowbray Thomson, the last survivor of the Cawnpore entrenchment, wrote that Willock's 'feats of arms were patent to all the force, who asserted that he had mistaken his profession and ought without doubt to have been a soldier' He thus participated in the suppression of the Mutiny from first to last, and he was the only civilian to receive the medal with the three clasps for relief of Lucknow, Lucknow 1858, and Central India. Queen Victoria sent him a letter of thanks.

He subsequently served at Shahjehanpur, Bareilly, and Bulundshahar as magistrate and collector, and as judge of Benares, and finally, from 1876 to his retirement in April 1884, as judge of Azimgarh. After his retirement Willock lived at Brighton and subsequently in London.


European artists were at work in Persia during the 19th Century, mostly French, such as Jules Laurens (1825-1901), Pascal Coste (1787-1879) and Eugene Flandin (1809-1889), all in Persia between the 1840s and 1860s, in the wake of French diplomatic missions at that time. For various examples and discussion, see G. Fellinger (ed.), L'Empire des Roses: chefs-d'oeuvre de l'art persan du XIX siecle, Lens 2018, pp. 26-35, in general, but particularly:
A portrait by Jules Didier of Jules Laurens sketching in a mountainous landscape (p. 26, no. 4).
A painting in oil of a sunset over the roofs of Isfahan by Jules Laurens, circa 1865, p. 33, no. 27.
Jules Laurens, Ruins of the Palace of Ashraf, oil on canvas, dated 2nd June 1848, p. 34, no. 28 - a landscape with cypresses behind the ruins and mountains beyond.

An intriguing potential connection with the subject of this painting is perhaps found in a manuscript in the Golestan Palace, Teheran, dated circa 1861-62, and illustrated and discussed in L'Empire des Roses, p. 230, no. 225. The manuscript of 44 pages consists of anecdotes from the hunting expeditions of Nasr al-Din Shah (in the area outside Teheran and the Mazandaran region), with 39 illustrations by Abu'l Hasan Ghaffari and Bahram Isfahani. The manuscript paintings illustrated show the Shah and his companions out shooting, dwarfed by extensive mountainous landscapes ('Le souverain y apparait souvent comme relegue au second plan, admirateur du grand spectacle de la nature').

The possibility of the painting being attributed to one of the Persian artists trained in European-style oil painting, notably Muhammad Ghaffari, Kamal al-Mulk. Examples at auction, depicting mountainous landscapes in a highly European manner, include: Christie's, Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds, 6th October 2011, lot 293 (previously offered at Christie's, Islamic Art and Indian Miniatures, 23rd April 1996, lot 105), signed Muhammad Ghaffari, Kamal al-Mulk, dated AH 1299/AD 1882; Christie's, Art of the Islamic and Indian Worlds, 7th October 2008, lot 200, signed by Muhammad Ghaffari, Kamal al-Mulk, dated AH 1310/AD 1892-93, depicting mountains and a river valley. It is discussed in the footnote there whether Ghaffari went to Europe before producing the work, and that he probably copied a European original in Persia. However, it seems far more certain from the style of the work, to attribute it to a European painter.

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