RICHARD CATON WOODVILLE (BRITISH 1856-1927)THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW BY GENERAL SIR HENRY HAVELOCK (1895)Oil on canvasSigned and dated '1895' (lower left)181 x 304cm (71¼ x 119½ in.)Provenance:Sale, Sotheby's, London, Important British and Irish Paintings, Watercolours and Drawings, 29 November 2001, lot 28Barnwell Manor, Northamptonshire, Windsor House AntiquesExhibited:Royal Academy, London, 1896, no. 486At a time of simmering resentment at colonial rule, with the British East India Company's annexation of lands including the Kingdom of Oudh in 1856, of which Lucknow was the capital, crippling taxation and religious intolerance, the Indian Rebellion, or the First War of Independence (also referred to as the Indian Mutiny) was sparked in May 1857, by an incident among angered Indian soldiers serving the British East India Company stationed at Meerut. It was quickly joined by Bengal Infantry regiments and civilians, spreading across north and north-east India including to the cities of Delhi, Agra, Kanpur, and Lucknow.Caton Woodville's painting of 1895 shows British soldiers and Indian allies grouped by the walls of a ruined building, perhaps the British Residency itself. The British general Sir Henry Havelock (1795-1857), with Sir James Outram (1803 - 1863) (technically commanding officer, but who had insisted that Havelock should remain in command until the Residency was taken), reached Lucknow on 26 September 1857 - and this is the moment represented in the present painting. At the time of Havelock's arrival, the British garrison at Lucknow had been under siege for five months, and Sir Henry Lawrence, Commander at the Residency during the onset of the attack, had died. Approximately a thousand British troops and 700 loyal sepoys held the Residency, and with them were about 150 women and children of the garrison, after it had been surrounded by hostile forces in July 1857. They were besieged by a force of around 60,000 rebels, including 10,000 British-trained soldiers. The governor Henry Lawrence had been killed in the initial engagement, and had been succeeded by General Inglis, and many other lives were lost in the heavy fighting for the city.An excerpt from the contemporary account of General Inglis was given in the 1896 Royal Academy exhibition catalogue: The annals of warfare contain no brighter page than that which will record the bravery, fortitude, vigilance, and patient endurance of hardships, privation and fatigue, displayed by the garrison of Lucknow. In the event, however, the forces led by Havelock had insufficient strength to be able to evacuate the Residency and thus he himself was caught within the besieged city.Reinforcements under Sir Colin Campbell (1792-1863) were brought into the campaign, and eventually on 16 November the siege was lifted. Cholera had swept through the embattled Residency, and Sir Henry Havelock died of disease and exhaustion on the very morning of the withdrawal of hostile forces. Fighting continued into the early months of 1858, and it was not until 21 March of that year that the British had regained possession of the city and surrounding area.