This rendering of the waterfront of Panjim, Goa along with View from the Terrace in Mahim (1930), are two of the few landscapes in this collection that belong to personal geography of the artist. Decades of urbanisation transformed the natural beauty of coastal Goa, to the point that, in our day and age, it’s hard to imagine this scenic location at the mouth of the Mandovi River.
In tune with the Anglo-Saxon Naturalist tradition, this landscape depicts the typical charming beauty of a village in coastal Goa. It must have been created during one of the many summer holidays the Trindade family took in their homeland. It expresses a keen sense of atmosphere through the use of colour and brushstroke in much the same way the British masters works do. Puffy grey and white clouds fill the sky. Warm colours, dashed and dotted throughout give the viewer the impression that the weather is about to change.
References: Shihandi, Marcella, et al, António Xavier Trindade: An Indian Painter from Portuguese Goa (exhibition catalogue), Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, 1996; Gracias, Fátima, Faces of Colonial India: The Work of Goan Artist António Xavier Trindade (1870-1935), Panjim, Goa, Fundação Oriente, 2014.