page_title: Ponsonby Peacocke
section_title: Artworks
hierarchical_section_title: Ponsonby Peacocke / Artworks
caption_attribution_description: Advertisement for lithographs by Stephen Peacock ("Captain, Half Pay (unattached)")
context_page_description: Captain Stephen Ponsonby Peacocke was a British officer of the Bombay Army and an artist notable for his 17 paintings of historic landscape views in the Nilgiri Hills in South India. Tinted lithographs were made of these views and published in imperial folio in London by the lithographer Paul Gauci in 1847. Peacocke's lithographs reflect the romantic escape to a temperate hilly area that all British people in the plains yearned for in those days. His career culminated as a member of the New Zealand Legislative Council from 1866 until his death in 1872.
context_section_description: In the early days, only about 15 years after the founding of Ootacamund, Captain Peacocke created 17 drawings of historic landscape views in the Nilgiri Hills during a medical leave spent at Ootacamund in the late 1830s. His lithographs reflect the romantic escape to a temperate hilly area that all British people in the plains yearned for in those days. It was a home away from home. Furlough was usually only every five years or so but there was the nearby refuge of the cool climate of the Indian hills to seek, especially Ooty with its downs, primulas and strawberries growing wild.
  In May 1847, the imperial folio Koondah Ranges, Western Ghauts, Madras, at & about the Stations of Ootacamund and Conoor, and the Segoor, Koondah and Conoor Passes, with vignette title page and sixteen large (54 centimeters (21 in) x 38 centimeters (15 in)) plates after Peacocke was executed in the best style of tinted lithography printed on card stock, with added hand colouring, in contemporary half morocco leather binding with gilt spine for the price of £2, 12s. 6p.
  The set was published by the lithographer, Paul Gauci, 9 North Crescent, Bedford Square, London.
  There are three notable features in all the Peacocke drawings. First, the play of sunlight in the background of these landscapes is realistic and supplies the title the Sunlit Hillscapes to this series. The soft but brilliant glow of light in the South Indian hills is beautifully captured by the artist in each of the drawings. Second, the graphical perspective in his topographic representations is very lifelike. The elevations and distant houses are all in proportion and scale. The distant views, with scale and depth, give drama to Peacocke's landscapes. Third is attention to detail away from the central focus of the work. For example, in View in the Hills, Hullikkul, one can see that the hills to top left are dotted about with houses, not apparent on a cursory glance, all perfectly positioned, topographically, and in perspective. Capt. Peacocke was trained in surveying in the Army and used this training to good effect in his Neilgherry views.
  Other than their 1847 publication, the lithographs are undated and the sequence of the original paintings is unknown. In an advertisement in Allen's Indian Mail the lithographs are listed in the following order:
  1. Vignette title-page, with a view of a halting place between Avalanche and Sispara. (This may be Bangitappal.)
  2. General View of Ootacamund.
  3. Avalanche.
  4. View amongst the Hills, near Hullikul.
  5. Bearer's godown at the Avalanche
  6. Toda Mund and Todas Ootacamund
  7. View from the Upper Bungalow, Conoor
  8. View over the Native Village, Conoor.
  9. View near Hullikul with the Koondah Range and Peak
  10. View Of Conoor from the Oota Road
  11. Traveller's Bungallow, Sispara.
  12. View in the Koondhas, near Sispara.
  13. Mr. Grove's House, Waterfall Kaitee.
  14. Road Cut between Ootacamund and Conoor
  15. View of the Low Country Conoor Pass.
  16. Waterfall near Bungallow.
  17. View at Ootacamuud, Nilligierries.
caption: Advertisement for Peacocke lithographs, Allen's Indian Mail, 1846
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop 7.0", "Image DateTime": "2009:02:13 23:09:41", "Image ExifOffset": "156", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "294", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "9045", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1869", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1545"}