John Bellasis Watercolour of ruins across the Sabermati River, near Ahmedabad, c 1840s

Bellasis, John Brownrigg, Major, 19th Bombay Infantry.  A small watercolour on paper, 10¾ x 4 ins. The watercolour sketch is ona much larger sheet of paper like most of the artists work. In this case it is within a pencil border and the artists usual JBB signature but is titled above the ruins On Sabermuttee near Ahmedabad in the artists usual neat handwriting and a further detail Demoiselles appears beneath the two cranes in the foreground. As a Bombay Army officer most of the artist’s work was done in Western India and in the lands of the old Bombay Presidency. The delicate and precise nature of the drawing is typical of the officer’s work and drawing was an essential part of an officer’s training at the time. The spelling of Indian place names in English has changed several times over the last 200 years and is indeed still changing.    dec2/1

Major John Brownrigg Bellasis [c. 1806- 1890] was c1mmissioned into the East India Company’s Bombay Army in the 10th Native Infantry in 1822 and remained with that regiment for most of his career until becoming a lieutenant colonel when  he moved first to the 8th and then served in several regiments. He was on furlough during much of 1841 & 1842 and it is this period when he seems to have been painting most consistently. He came from a military family, his father, also John, being a major general commanding the Bombay Artillery around the time of his birth. The East India Register 1825 when John Brownrigg Bellasis was an ensign in the 10th shows Jonathan Hutchins Bellasis was a  captain in the same regiment, probably an elder brother, and Edward H. Bellasis was Private Secretary to the Governor.