Lord Kitchener
Mortimer Menpes
1903
Watercolor
Source: The Durbar, facing p. 194
“The Commander-in-Chief’s camp during the Durbar was one of the gayest and most brilliant in Delhi; he himself was genuinely sorry when the party had to be broken up at the end of the fortnight.”
[Click on image to enlarge it.]
Related material
[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the University of California and the Internet Archive and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite it in a print one. — George P. Landow]
The Commander-in-Chief was sitting at his desk, writing. He was exceedingly kind and sympathetic, took a real interest in my work, and was not nearly so difficult a sitter as I had expected him to be. At the same time, he struck me as being intensely shy— not at all the same man I remembered on the kopje at Osfontein in the midst of battle. Even the character of his face seemed to have changed. He was a different person. There was a softening, a distinct alteration. The whole time I was painting him I noticed that he seemed self-conscious. I was aware that he longed for the sitting to be over, not so much because he disliked it as because he was really shy. Still, he was jovial withal, entirely sympathetic and kindly. He looked serious during the sitting, almost tragic; but it seemed a passing expression on a jovial face. As we entered he stood up, and Colonel Hamilton introduced us to him. Then there was a pause, and nothing was said for a moment, until I mumbled out an apology for asking him to sit. He said at once, “I think this room is too dark. I don’t believe you will be able to see me; but you can try.” With that he sat down and stared straight at me, as rigid as a sphinx; and so long as I painted him he fixed me with those brilliant steel-blue eyes of his. It was a little unnerving at first. After a time he shook off his shyness, and began to talk about the Durbar and the possibilities for my work, expressing his opinion that in the native Chiefs’ camps I should secure my best material. By the time I had sketched him in the tent I became bolder, and begged that he would sit outside. This was rather daring, for there he would be seen by other people, and in answer. Lord Kitchener murmured something I did not quite hear, which showed me clearly that it was not altogether his pleasure. Still, so many friends of mine had talked to him about this sitting that he felt that he must go through with it. He braced himself together manfully and came out. He sat outside in the sun in a rigid and dogged way, and the moment I said that I had finished he sprang up and rushed into his tent. We followed; and he stood up and talked, but not for long, and we left hurriedly. [196-197]
Bibliography
Menpes, Mortimer. The Durbar. Text by Dorothy Menpes. London: Adam & Charles Black, 1903. Internet Archive version of a copy in the University of California at Los Angeles Library. Web. 27 May 2017.
Victorian
Web
British
India
Artists
Mortimer
Menpes
Water-
colors
Next
Last modified 29 May 2017