The pictures:

1. In the Fiji Isles

Wood engravings after her paintings, published in in her two chapters in W.C.Procter (ed) Round the Globe, Wm Isbister Ltd, London (n.d.) 188?.

2. At Home in Fiji

Photo-relief plates reproducing her watercolour paintings in C.F.Gordon Cumming At Home in Fiji, Edinburgh, Blackwood, 1881

Brief biographical notes:

Constance Fredereka ('Eka') Gordon Cumming

Constance Gordon Cumming (1837-1924) was the 12th child of a wealthy Scottish family, her father Sir William Gordon Cumming, her mother Elizabeth Maria née Campbell of Islay and Shawfield. The family estates were at Altyre, where Constance was born, and Gordonstoun, now home to Gordonstoun School, which boasts some very eminent alumni, among them the Prince of Wales.*

Among the great number of her relatives was Sir Arthur Hamilton Gordon, KCMG, son of George, the Fourth Earl of Aberdeen. In 1874 Sir Arthur was appointed the first permanent governor of the fledgling Crown Colony of Fiji, and because of this connection, and because she was already renowned as an intrepid traveller and adventurer, Constance was invited to accompany Lady Gordon to Fiji as companion - a role for which she was uniquely prepared. A remarkable woman in a number of ways, including being an accomplished artist (producing over a thousand paintings of subjects all over the world) and prolific author, her Pacific experiences are best remembered from her books At Home in Fiji and A lady's Cruise on a French Man-of-War. She also contributed articles to various magazines, being grouped by one author among "Viragos (sic) of the periodical press"** It was perhaps inevitable in the extraordinarily patriarchal society of the late Victorian era that she was the object of considerable derision and contempt from a number of male flâneurs of the era, but in retrospect that fact, and their remarks, merely serve to highlight the remarkableness of her achievements. Her career is noted in a number of university courses about female adventurers and authors.

* I am indebted to Mr Alan Wills, Archivist of Gordonstoun School, Elgin, Moray, Scotland, for seeking out on my behalf several pictures, including the photographic portrait above, and an obituary newspaper article on Constance.

** Ralph Jessop, "Viragos of the Periodical Press: Constance Gordon-Cumming, Charlotte Dempster, Margaret Oliphant, Christian Isobel Johnstone," in Douglas Gifford and Dorothy McMillan, eds., A History of Scottish Women's Writing, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1997, 216-231.

Publications:

1876  From the Hebrides to the Himalayas; a Sketch of Eighteen Months' Wanderings in Western Isles and Eastern Highlands. London: Sampson Low,

1881  "The last king of Tahiti" IN Contemporary Review, v.41, London

1881  At Home in Fiji, Edinburgh, Blackwood

1882  A lady's Cruise on a French Man-of-War, Edinburgh, Blackwood,

1882  "Gordon Ningpo and the Buddhist Temples" IN The Century Magazine

1883  Fire fountains, Edinburgh

1883  In the Hebrides [cruising in the islands of Scotland], Edinburgh

1884  "Fijian pottery" IN The Art Journal

1884  California As I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years. London: W. Blackwood and Sons

1884  Granite Crags [later edition: Granite crags of California], Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Son

1892  Two happy years in Ceylon. 2 volumes. Edinburgh & London, William Blackwood and Sons

1899  The inventor of the numeral-type for China, by the use of which illiterate Chinese both blind and sighted can very quickly be taught to read and write fluently. London: Downey & Co.

1900  Wanderings in China. Edinburgh & London, William Blackwood and Sons

1904  Memories

LINKS: A page from the personal album of artist Constance Gordon Cumming (Cambridge Museum of Anthropology & Archaeology)

Painter of Yosemite