Description
An original 1880s watercolour painting, Anna Grant-Duff, Clematis Cirrhosa Flower, Palestine. A charming study in watercolour by Anna Julia Grant-Duff (née Webster) (1839-1915). Anna Grant-Duff was married to Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant-Duff (1829-1906), a well-connected Scottish politician, administrator & author, who served as Governor of Madras from 1881 to 1886. She was involved in pioneering women's healthcare in India in the late 19th century. The Grant-Duffs visited Palestine in the 1880s the Grant-Duffs, spending a winter at Haifa in a house owned by the British author & traveller Laurence Oliphant (1829-1888). Oliphant & his wife Alice were Christian Zionists, who instigated a mission to establish a Jewish agricultural settlement in Palestine. This charming watercolour is one of an interesting collection of pictures that we have for sale by Anna Julia Grant-Duff (née Webster) (1839-1915). The pictures tell of Anna's wide-ranging travels in the second half of the 19th century, picturing Scotland, France, Switzerland, Algeria, Egypt & Palestine. Women at this time are all too often remembered & defined by the men in their lives: & indeed it was her marriage in 1859 to Sir Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant-Duff (1829-1906) that provided her with the opportunity to travel so widely & encounter many interesting literary & political figures. Mountstuart Grant-Duff was a well-connected Scottish politician, administrator & author, who served as Governor of Madras from 1881 to 1886. He travelled extensively & wrote voluminously. But Anna also had her own talents & interests, & in Madras she was instrumental in setting up the pioneering Royal Victoria Hospital for Caste & Gosha Women in 1884, an exclusive hospital for women, under the superintendence of Mary Ann Scharliebthe first lady doctor who qualified from the University of London. Anna also helped Florence Nightingale find suitable authors to write health primers in vernacular languages, & she herself published 'Speeches 1884-5-6' on women's health in India, which Nightingale described as 'the very best I ever read by a woman'. Anna also published a volume of poetry in 1882. Anna Grant-Duff documents the couple's extensive travels in watercolour. in 1870 there is record of her meeting with the woman artist Elizabeth Butler (1846-1933), who travelled to the far reaches of the Empireincluding Palestinewith her husband, William Francis Butler, a distinguished officer of the British Army. It is possible that Grant-Duff found inspiration in Elizabeth Butler. Anna Grant-Duff was also fortunate that during her travels she associated with many interesting figures. in Brittany, on their trip to the prehistoric site at Carnac in 1876, the Grant-Duffs were accompanied by John Lubbock, the banker & polymath who made significant contributions in archaeology, ethnography & biology, & coined the terms 'Paleolithic' & 'Neolithic'. The following year they were also accompanied by Lubbock on their trip
