M. F. Pithawalla’s Diana of the Uplands (1911) is a striking oil-on-canvas painting that combines portraiture, landscape, and the visual language of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British art. The work depicts a fashionable woman seated outdoors on a windswept hillside, accompanied by two large black-and-white greyhounds. She wears a long, flowing white dress or coat with pale blue accents and a broad-brimmed straw hat decorated with vivid red flowers. Her raised hand appears to steady the hat against the wind, while her other hand holds the dogs’ leash. The woman’s relaxed yet alert pose gives the composition a sense of movement and vitality. The landscape occupies a substantial part of the composition. Behind the sitter are dark, undulating hills beneath a broad, cloudy sky. The muted browns, greens and greys of the landscape contrast with the luminous white of the woman’s clothing. The red flowers on her hat provide a small but important accent of colour, drawing attention toward her face. Pithawalla uses the strong horizontal sweep of the landscape and the diagonal line of the leash to create visual movement across the canvas. The two greyhounds dominate the lower foreground, their elongated bodies and energetic poses reinforcing the impression of a brisk outdoor excursion. The painting is particularly significant because Pithawalla’s work is closely associated with Charles Wellington Furse’s Diana of the Uplands (1903–04). Furse’s original, now associated with Tate, similarly presents a full-length woman in a white costume and broad-brimmed hat, holding two greyhounds against a windswept landscape. Contemporary descriptions of Furse’s painting identify the sitter as his wife, Mrs. Charles Furse, and note its exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1904. Pithawalla’s 1911 painting can therefore be understood as an important example of the circulation and adaptation of European academic and portrait traditions within colonial India.
The muted browns, greens and greys of the landscape contrast with the luminous white of the woman’s clothing. The red flowers on her hat provide a small but important accent of colour, drawing attention toward her face.
