Sir Arthur Phayre

Sir Arthur Phayre and the Myoza of Magwé in Calcutta

This watercolour depicts Sir Arthur Phayre and the Myoza of Magwé in Calcutta 1854. In the early years of his reign, King Mindon tried desperately to persuade the British to return Lower Burma, which had been seized during the Second Anglo-Burmese War (1852-53). In 1854 he sent one of his most powerful ministers the Myoza of Magwé (a minister to the very influential senior queen) as his envoy to the Marquess of Dalhousie, then Governor-General of India. The Magwé Myoza...

“Ameegalay”

This watercolour portrait of "Ameegalay" was by the British artist Colesworthy Grant in 1855. Ameegalay was the younger daughter of the Sitke (second-in-command of a military unit during the time of Burmese kings) of Prome. Colesworthy Grant was the official artist attached to Sir Arthur Phayre's 1855 mission to Amarapura and the court of King Mindon. Prome was one of their stops on the way from Rangoon to Amarapura.