WD2226

Portrait of Simon Fraser; head and shoulders, looking half-right and wearing a white stock. c.1846.

Inscribed on original mount in ink by Mrs. Claire Fraser: ‘Simon Fraser killed in Mutiny.’

Pastel on brown paper; 22 by 18.5 ins.

Note: Simon Fraser (1803-57) entered the Company's service in 1820. Assistant to the Persian Secretary to Government 1822; Deputy Persian Secretary to Government 1824; Magistrate and Collector Northern Division, Delhi Territory 1832; Civil Sessions Judge, Bundelkhand 1836; Civil Sessions Judge, Mainpuri 1843; on furlough 1844 to September 1846; Civil Sessions Judge, Bareilly 1846; Commissioner Revenue and Circuit, Delhi, Agent to Lieutenant-Governor in the North Western Provinces 1853; killed in the Mutiny 1857.

Although not signed this portrait is in substantially the same style as WD2227 below and, although ascribed by family tradition to George Richmond, is probably also by Lowes Dickinson. It seems likely that it was made while Simon Fraser was on furlough in 1844-46, the portrait of his brother, Charles, being made a little later in 1847.

A letter in the Fraser papers (Mss Eur E258) appears to refer to this pastel drawing. After the death of Simon Fraser in the Mutiny, his son, Simon John Gordon Fraser, wrote to his uncle Charles on 16 September 1857 saying, 'At the same time I took to her [i.e. his landlady] my father's portrait belonging to Mrs. Douglas and asked her to be good enough to take care of it as we intended to make use of it in conjunction with the chalk drawing in obtaining as good a likeness as we could. Would it be asking too much of you, when you return to town, kindly to see Kilburn about fixing the portrait last taken, as Claudet expressed his fears lest it should be rubbed out or fade?'