Bombay Green

This Indian scene painted in oil on cardboard is inscribed "Bombay Green drawn by R. Melville Grindlay 1807. Mundlay from the Bunder" and was given to the Indian Museum in London by the artist, through a man recorded only as "J. Mathews" in 1875. It was transferred to the South Kensington Museum in 1879. The view of Bombay Green is seen from the "bunder", the landing place on one of the man-made barriers protecting what was originally the island of Bombay. At the time the painting was done, the city now known as Mumbai was evolving from a group of islands into the peninsula that it is today. "Bombay Green", now Horniman Circle, was in the area of the Fort and was surrounded by buildings erected by the English East India Company as part of the administrative framework of the Bombay Presidency.