Elephant Shooting on the Kwanga River

Henry Bailey ( - 1907)

Oil on canvas

1884-1894
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  • About the work
    Location
    Country: UK
    City: London
    Place: Government Art Collection


  • About the artist
    Little is known of explorer and amateur artist Henry Bailey. From 1884 to 1888, he travelled through the Congo Free States. Some of the paintings Bailey made during these travels were reproduced as engravings in his recollection of the trip ‘Travel and Adventures in the Congo Free State and its Big Game Shooting’. He wrote the book under the ‘nom de plume’ or pen name Bula N’Zau, meaning elephant smasher; a title given to him by the locals. A watercolour by Henry Bailey, showing farm labourers tending a field of cabbages, is in the collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. In 2003, the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C. purchased a collection of sketches, photographs and a map, relating to his travels through the Congo.
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  • Details
    Title
    Elephant Shooting on the Kwanga River
    Date
    1884-1894
    Medium
    Oil on canvas
    Dimensions
    height: 24.50 cm, width: 35.00 cm
    Acquisition
    Purchased from Charles J Sawyer, June 1975
    Inscription
    br: H.B.
    GAC number
    11997