Horace van Ruith

Private collection, Florida
Acquired from the above circa 2015

Very minor wear along left and right edges. There is buckling and a faint impression of a line along the upper edge from the stretcher of the canvas. Hairline craquelere is clearly visible, near edge over the bird (upper left), along the figure in the extreme left, between the little girl and the woman, the sadhu and along the pillar on the right and brown ledge on the foreground. A few spots of discoloration in the upper left quadrant (right of leftmost figure) appear inherent. UV light: This work has been cleaned and minimally consolidated to ensure long term preservation. Few spots of retouching are fluorescing – mostly along the extremities of the work such as on the upper right edge, top left corner, above the pigeon on the upper left, under the white pigeon on the foreground, and a few spots on the left of the leftmost figure, one of which is next to the figure's foot, a puncture that has been repaired. The patch of this repair is visible only from the back and not the front. This work is very good condition for its age.
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Horace van Ruith specialized in landscapes, genre scenes and portraiture in both oil and watercolor. Although he was born in Capri, he subsequently settled in England, after spending several years working in Italy. He visited Bombay during the early 1880s and established a studio there, where this work was made. His paintings on India mostly portrayed the local people and captured their daily lives, from leisure activities to various trades. In 1886, he returned to London and partook in the Colonial and Indian Exhibition opened by Queen Victoria where he displayed a number of paintings with similar subjects. Her son, the Duke of Connaught, wrote of van Ruith in a letter to the Queen, stating that ‘no man understands the peculiar characteristics of Indian life better than he does and he is a very clever artist.’ (P. Rohatgi, P. Godrej and R. Mehrotra, Bombay to Mumbai: Changing Perspectives, Marg Publications, Mumbai, 1997, p. 153)

The current painting depicts a Brahmin household in casual repose within their own dwelling. Using the courtyard to add tranquility to the setting, Horace van Ruith brilliantly captures the character of each family member within the rustic decor of the space. Brahmin families are from the highest Hindu priestly caste and were traditionally responsible for teaching and maintaining sacred knowledge and for conducting religious rituals and ceremonies in temples in the community. As a result, they were often well respected and their lives were of significant interest. Here, van Ruith is portraying an intimate family moment, where amidst the serenity of one's home, everyday life is exposed; the mother ushering her child along with ornaments for worship, the young boy leaning against the pillar in a moment of contemplation, the seated men in relaxed chatter and a priest quietly meditating. Moreover, the scene is strewn with interesting objects such as food platters, copper vessels, literature scripts and metallic bells giving the painting a tangible presence. van Ruith specialized in landscapes, genre scenes and portraiture in both oil and watercolor. Although he was born in Capri, he subsequently settled in England, after spending several years working in Italy. He visited Bombay during the early 1880s and established a studio there, where this work was made. His paintings on India mostly portrayed the local people and captured their daily lives, from leisure activities to various trades.
In 1886, upon his return to London, he partook in the Colonial and Indian Exhibition opened by Queen Victoria where he displayed a number of paintings with similar subjects. Her son, the Duke of Connaught, wrote of van Ruith in a letter to the Queen, stating that 'no man understands the peculiar characteristics of Indian life better than he does and he is a very clever artist.' (P. Rohatgi, P. Godrej and R. Mehrotra, Bombay to Mumbai: Changing Perspectives, Marg Publications, Mumbai, 1997, p. 153) Indeed the present painting attests to the artist's technical mastery of realism as well as his skill in capturing his sitters’ emotional state as evidenced by the variation within the family’s expressions. van Ruith is known to have traveled to India again at the turn of the century, working in Baroda at the invitation of His Highness, The Gaekwad of Baroda. In spite of his long life and extensive oeuvre, his paintings are rare and seldom appear on the market.