THE WEIRD AND WONDERFUL WORLD OF MAJ-GEN FREDERICK STAFFORD HEWETT (1826-80)
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Anyone who has ever doodled, listened to Gilbert & Sullivan, enjoyed Tenniel's illustrations for Alice in Wonderland or wondered what the British Raj might have looked like under the influence of a spiked hookah pipe will find some affinity with the weird and wonderful work of Frederick Stafford Hewett. Hewett was a career soldier in the Indian Army, rising to the rank of Major General, while nurturing, largely in secret, the most astonishing and peculiar artistic talent. The drawings and watercolours on display here were largely produced between 1868-72, when Hewett was in command of a regiment of Native Infantry in the Bombay Presidency. Like Gilbert & Sullivan's 'Modern Major General', however, Hewett seems far more in interested in other things: ladies' feet, monkeys, crinolines, baobab trees and skeletons, to name but a few of his varied pre-occupations.
The Extreme Military Moustache
The Good Woman
The Rajah of Akulkate & Entourage at Railway Station
Monkey in a Corset
Spoliation – An Allegory
Skeleton in a Crinoline – What A Fright! Inspired by Gustave Dore's 'Wandering Jew'
A Skeleton Army and A Little Bat
The Temptation of Mermaids
Procession of the Great Mogul in the Ramazan The Infant Bacchus
The Caterwauling Diva with a Chorus of Heads
Habeus Corpus – A Legal Fantasy
Leapfrog – Out of My Head
Don Quixote & Toy Soldiers
Hands Clasped – Furies and Fairies
Jack-in-the-Box
'Heavens Light Our Guide' – the motto of the Star of India
The Lady of the Lake
An Elizabethan Nightmare
What on Earth's for Christmas Dinner?
Songs of the Deep
The Mushroom Skeletons
The Lesbian Engagement Ring
The Fish-tongue Beards
You visit the lake at your Peril – there be Monsters!
Dancing on a Pelican's beak
The Hairstyle of a Snail and a Fantasia of Feet
Monkeyana
The Majesty of English Law! (An Execution at Thannah)
A Weird Turtle and the Prettiest Little Shoes
Elizabethan Playing Cards
Death Lurks behind the Fashionable Veil
Ridiculous Mourning Finis Topographical
Near Marseilles 5 Feb, 1868
Oriental Hotel, Galle, Ceylon Mar 3, 1869
Royal Hotel, Bombay, Mar 1868
Colaba Lighthouse, Bombay Nov 15, 1869
Ruined Pagoda at Harichunderghere
Inscribed, The Prongs, Bombay Nov 15, 1869 Graphite, inscribed & dated Hyderabad Fort, 1852 Adam's Peak, Ceylon 31 Mar 1869 (Turtle “Soup Tomorrow”)
The Lighthouse, Bombay Feb 25, 1870
Ten-Gun Armstrong Battery, Colaba Mar 6, 1870
Thannah Fort – Now the Jail Dec 16, 1869
The Lighthouse, Gibraltar (Doodles) 21 May, 1873 Port of Alexandria (windmills) 11 July 1868 Tomb of the Egyptian (watercolour)
An Egyptian Village sketched from the Railway
St Helena – Homeward Bound Feb '55
Nature
An Ideal Scene on the Banks of the Nile
The Colonel's Horse Skull of a Hyena
The Severed Limb of a Banyan tree continuing to grow, Saltarah Feb 1868 Donkey wearing King Theodore's Saddle Funny Little Fish (watercolour) 14 Mar 1870
Leopard Woken by Tiger Hunt
Marine Monster caught in the surf, Madras
Banian Tree in the Nipani Jungle An Aviary with a Circus Dog Tiger Shooting
Jungle Ropes, Deesa 1877
Small Aloe
Turtle Skull & Pretty Shoes
Figural Drawings
Woman in the Red Sea, 3 Mar 1875
Pretty Young Ladies in Bizarre Costume
The Kiss Goodbye
Croquet and Crinolines
Native Indian Heads & Frogs
Fantasy Costume
Mortal Combat between Brahman Gods
Architecture
The Family Home, England Barracks Interior – Huts intended for the Abysinnian Expedition
Cursetjee Furdonjee's House
Interior of the Royal English Family Garden Hotel, Madras 13 Apr 1869
House, Elphinstone Circle, Bombay Jul 1869
Exotica & Erotica
Umbrellas and Crinolines inside-out Foot Fetish
Three Disgraces |
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