An original antique watercolour titled "Caravanserai, Bombay" by the NZ artist Edith Emma Strutton nee Munnings(1867-1939). A caravanserai is a place of lodging for merchants and travellers on trade routes.

Edith Munnings was born in ChCh, her parents were pioneer settlers of Addington and her cousin, Sir Alfred Munnings, a President of the Royal Academy. In 1882 she was one of the first intake of day students at the Canterbury School of Art and as an evening student in 1887 - contemporaries included Margaret Stoddart and Kate Sheppard. Passing with excellence, she became a member of staff and the School's first female tutor in 1893.

Edith Munnings exhibited with the Canterbury Society of Arts(CSA)1890-1897(1916,1922 as EE Strutton) and with the Auckland Society of Artists 1892-1893. She also joined the ChCh Palette Club, which was a less conservative outlet than the CSA for younger local artists. However, rather than continuing what was starting to be a significant career as a professional female artist in NZ, Edith chose a different path. In 1900, she married an Australian, the Rev Henry Herbert Strutton(1872-1946) and together they became missionaries in India and where she lived until she died in Lonavala in 1939. Fortunately, Edith continued painting, producing many watercolours of local scenes and people and I shall be auctioning some others in due course.

This watercolour is painted on a fabric material and the visible watercolour measures 19cm by 26cm(the frame 35cm by 44cm), it's protected behind glass and ready to hang. There is a water stain in the top right corner of the mount surround, otherwise condition is good. At the back is the title and the original 3 gns price and also an H Fisher & Son picture framer's label, which helps date to the late 1910s or 1920s.

See photos and note they include a photo of a self-portrait of Edith(ChCh Art Gallery Collection).