From the Pathfinder Collection: A Soldier's Eye on Ceylon

The Watercolours of H. H. St. George

- By JENNIFER MORAGODA

A Chance Find in Covent Garden

A few decades ago, I wandered into an antiquarian shop in Covent Garden and asked, almost on a whim, whether they had any old prints or maps of Sri Lanka.

To my surprise, the shopkeeper said he had just received a set of sixteen original watercolours. He pulled out a box of mainly landscapes by an artist with the impressive-sounding name of Harry Hemersley St. George. In the corner of each work appeared his distinctive but slightly compressed shorthand signature: “H.H.St.G.” The shopkeeper could tell me nothing more about him.

I excitedly informed my father-in-law of this chance find, since he was knowledgeable about Sri Lankan art. He too had never heard of St. George, but when he saw the watercolours he was immediately struck by the artist’s feeling for tropical light, lush greens, laterite reds, atmosphere, and place. The paintings quietly drew the viewer in: verdant sweeps of hill country, a blue-green seaside vista of Ostenburg Ridge in Trincomalee, Kantale tank beneath a dramatic grey-violet sky, the rock face of Dambulla cave temple, the palm-fringed Moratuwa River, a solitary kitul palm towering over a small figure, and a panoramic view of Colombo harbour. My father-in-law put me in charge of negotiations, which I nervously conducted; it was my first experience in acquiring art.

The British Museum Trail

I gradually gave up my search to find out more about the person behind these watercolours, having reached a dead end. Then, years later during the Covid pandemic, while researching an unrelated subject, I discovered a cache of his works on the British Museum’s online collection. The records also revealed the existence of several sketchbooks, a few photographs, and associated family papers in the British Museum’s holdings.