It was the sight of the familiar flowers in a permanent gallery dedicated to Marianne North in London’s Kew Gardens that caught the attention of gallerists Dhwani Gudka and Keshav Mahendru. “It piqued our interest in other artists in this domain,” Gudka reveals. This curiosity led them to acquire six works of a quiet, unheralded artist now displayed on the walls of the Subcontinent gallery in Fort.

The artist’s journey

The exhibition, Bombay Blooms, features the works of Lady Winifred Strangman nee Warneford. Born in Cape Town in 1874, she arrived in Bombay in 1896 and stayed for three decades. “She was a very accomplished artist, and received a scholarship to the prestigious Slade School of Art, London. Her marriage to Thomas Strangman also allowed her access into the higher class in society,” Gudka reveals.