The First Western Woman to Sketch Punjab

‘Philour. Runjeet Sing’s fort across the Sutlej. Loodianah in the distance. Camp of Seiks’, 1834. PENCIL DRAWING ATTRIBUTED TO AN ANONYMOUS TRAVELLER. BY PERMISSION OF THE BRITISH LIBRARY (WD 4443, F. 8).

Around 1834, an anonymous traveller became the first western woman to have produced pencil drawings of places and people in Punjab.

Through quick pencil studies, she documented warriors, sacred spaces and everyday landscapes. Among her sketches were Akali-Nihangs, a Sikh archer and scenes from various cities, including Sirhind, Kaithal (in present-day Haryana), Phillaur and Ludhiana.

A Sikh archer, Punjab, c. 1834. Pencil drawing attributed to an Anonymous Traveller. By permission of the British Library (WD 4443, F. 10)

Her now rather faint drawing of the ‘Shrine of the murdered infants of Gooroo Govind’ is also the earliest known depiction of any gurdwara by a western woman.

‘Shrine of the murdered infants of Gooroo Govind, Sirhind’, c. 1834. PENCIL DRAWING ATTRIBUTED TO AN ANONYMOUS TRAVELLER. BY PERMISSION OF THE BRITISH LIBRARY (WD 4443, F. 13).

See more of her work in Eleanor Nesbitt’s ‘Sikh: Two Centuries of Western Women’s Art & Writing’, which you can buy here.