Description
Dimensions
53.5cm x 81cm (21in x 31.75in)
Provenance
Note: Andrew Nicholl was from Belfast and established a local reputation as a landscape painter by his early twenties and became a founding member of the Belfast Association of Artists. In 1832 he exhibited at the Royal Academy and by 1837 he was elected as an Associate Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy. In 1846, Nicholl was appointed as a teacher of landscape painting and drawing at the Colombo Academy in Ceylon, where he remained for three years. There, with the backing of his most significant patron, the Belfast MP and Colonial Secretary James Emmerson Tennent, Nicholl produced a number of views of local scenery and also provided illustrations for Tennent's book Ceylon: An Account of the Island - Physical, Historical and Topographical, published in 1860. It is thought that he returned from Ceylon by 1849, as he exhibited some views of the island at the Royal Academy that year. He divided his time between London and Belfast, and exhibited at both the Royal Academy and Royal Hibernian Academy. In 1870 he offered twelve watercolours of views of Ceylon to Queen Victoria, who bought two of them.