A Native Canoe off the Coast of Ceylon
A Native Canoe off the Coast of Ceylon
 who financed a two year stay in London from 1830 to 1832. Tennent was M.P. for Belfast until July 1845 when he was knighted and appointed civil secretary to the colonial government of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). In 1846 Nicholl travelled to Ceylon where Tennent had found him an appointment as teacher of landscape drawing, painting and design at the Colombo Academy. Nicholl provided the illustrations for Tennent's book `Ceylon: an Account of the Island, Physical, Historical and Topographical' published in two volumes in October 1859. Nicholl returned to Europe in 1849/50 and made a living as an artist living at various times in London, Belfast and Dublin.){kind=link}
ANDREW NICHOLL, R.H.A.
Belfast 1804-1886 London
A Native Canoe off the Coast of Ceylon
Watercolour heightened with bodycolour and scratching out
215 x 312mm., 8 ½ x 12 ¼ in.
Born in Belfast, the son of a bootmaker, Nicholl was apprenticed to a printer and in his twenties acquired a wealthy patron, the politician and writer Sir James Emerson Tennent (1804-1869) who financed a two year stay in London from 1830 to 1832. Tennent was M.P. for Belfast until July 1845 when he was knighted and appointed civil secretary to the colonial government of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). In 1846 Nicholl travelled to Ceylon where Tennent had found him an appointment as teacher of landscape drawing, painting and design at the Colombo Academy. Nicholl provided the illustrations for Tennent's book `Ceylon: an Account of the Island, Physical, Historical and Topographical' published in two volumes in October 1859. Nicholl returned to Europe in 1849/50 and made a living as an artist living at various times in London, Belfast and Dublin.