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Subcontinent presents Bombay Blooms, an exhibition showcasing works by British painter Lady Winifred Warneford Strangman (1874-1955) who arrived in Bombay at the turn of the 20th century and made the city her home for the next three decades. Curated by Ruta Waghmare Baptista, the exhibition brings together a remarkable group of oil paintings that highlight the artist’s sensitivity to the flora and fauna of the city and her desire to immortalize them in paint.
Born in Cape Town, South Africa to a British officer and his wife, Strangman won a scholarship to London’s prestigious Slade School of Art in 1892. She moved to Bombay after marrying Sir Thomas J. Strangman, who served twice as Advocate General of Bombay. She became part of the city’s elite circles, rubbing shoulders with Indian royalty, top British officials and titans of industry.
Lady Strangman belongs to a league of British women artists whose work was shaped by their unique position in India’s political and cultural landscape. While many artists tried to document the sights, sounds and people of the subcontinent often through a removed, orientalist lens, in Lady Strangman’s work we see an intimacy with the natural world.
The paintings are made in true-to-life colours, capturing the textures of the foliage and local butterflies in incredible detail. The slivers of sky that make it into the paintings hint at the time of day they were captured. The works have been arranged to allow conversation with each other and the flowering trees seen through the gallery windows.
The exhibition also showcases archival images from Strangman's life and features a historical timeline of women artists who made flora their subject in time when there’s a renewed interest in setting up imperial botanical gardens across India and the United Kingdom.
Though aligned with the broader tradition of British botanical artists in India, Strangman’s works stand apart, carrying forward the evolution of artistic practice and the social fabric of her time into the present.
The exhibition opens on May 30th, 2026, and remains on view till 10th July, 2026.