TUGELA HEIGHTS BRIDGE [painting]

Framed watercolour painting with glass. Small chips to edges of frame. 18 x 31 cm [oval painting]; 35 x 50 cm [frame]. Framer's ticket on rear: "Combridge Limited, 18 & 20 Grafton Street, Dublin". King's annotations along the bottom of the painting names the views and indicates the exact locations from which he painted the scene. From left to right: Grobelaar's Kloof; Tugela; Grobelaar's Hill, and Tugela Heights. Signed & dated by King on lower right hand side.

The Colenso railway bridge was blown up by Boer forces on the night of 28 November 1899 to disrupt British troop movement (see Maurice and Grant, vol. 1, p. 273 and Amery, volume 2, p. 318). King (1864-1939) was born in Cornwall and moved to Natal where he worked as an engineer. In Artists... of the Anglo-Boer war, (p. 157), Ryno Greenwall credits him with over 20 paintings of Natal battlefield sites.