Overall: 39cm (15.3in) x 23.5cm (9.2in)
Ink and watercolour on paper. Full length study of Earl Roberts, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Forces in South Africa, inscribed ‘From life’ and signed and dated ‘Gordon H. Grant / South Africa 1900’. Image: 25cm (10in) x 10.5cm (4.2in).
Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts of Kandahar, Pretoria and Waterford (1832-1914) was born in Cawnpore, India and served in the Indian Army for twenty-five years seeing action in Indian Mutiny and on the Abyssinian Expedition. He later commanded the British forces in Afghanistan in 1881-1882. He was Commander-in-Chief, India (1885-1893), in the South African War (1899-1902) and, finally, Commander-in-Chief of the British Army (1901-1904). Roberts was awarded the Victoria Cross while serving as a Lieutenant in the Bengal Horse Artillery during the Indian Mutiny. In 1899, his son, Frederick Roberts was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions at Colenso during the South African War.
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Gordon Grant (1875-1962) was a San Francisco born illustrator, author and etcher, who was educated in school Dundee, Scotland. At eighteen he was determined to become an artist and spent the next three years studying at the Heatherley School of Fine Art and Lambeth Art Schools in London. Upon his return to San Francisco, he joined the art staff of the San Francisco 'Examiner' and a year later joined the staff of the New York 'Sunday World.' He was hired as an illustrator by Harper's Weekly in 1899 to cover the Boer War in South Africa, and the revolution in Mexico.
From the start of his career, his artwork included scenes of the sea, ships and sailors. In 1901 an exhibition was held of his watercolours at the Salmagundi Club in New York. He was also a member of the American Watercolor Society, Society of Illustrators, Allied Artists of America, New York Society of Painters, New York Watercolor Club, and American Federation of Artists. Beginning in the early 1920's he exhibited his marine paintings and watercolours at Grand Central Galleries in New York. He also started making etchings and won first prize at the Chicago Society of Etchers in the early 1930's. From the late 1930's to the beginning of the 1950's his lithographic prints established his reputation as a printmaker. He continued to have annual watercolour exhibitions and produced prints for Associated American Artists.