S. Fonceca (active India 1849-1856), "A Gentleman, Probably of the East India Company" and "His Wife and Son, Probably at Madras", a pair of watercolors (with graphite and touches of gouache) on paper, the first signed and dated "March 1849" lower left, the second signed with date of "1853" obscured by frame?) lower right, each sight 20 in. x 13 3/4 in, approximate sheet 20 1/2 in. x 14 1/2 in., in original period frames. E1200-1800 Provenance: Alderfer Auction Gallery, December 16, 1993, Lot 59 (as dated 1849-1853). Note: This highly accomplished but almost unstudied artist seems to be known, at present only through three commissions: this beautiful pair of sheets from 1849 (and 1853?); an undated watercolor of "A River Landscape in India" of 10 « in. x 16 « in. (sold at Sotheby, London, 15 November 2002, lot 40); and a final watercolor portrait of "General William Atkinson with His Wife and Family in the Grounds at Kamptee, Madras" inscribed "December 1856" and measuring 10 5-8 in. x 17in. (Sotheby, Summers Place, May 21, 1998, lot 175). The gentleman's highly correct "morning clothes"-including a very British-looking cutaway jacket and top hat-that are carefully reflected by his son (in a charming visual rapport, with the portrait of the father reintroduced as a framed reprise into the second image), as well as the subtle hint of a shield of arms perhaps embroidered on the stool, and the view apparently of an "East Indiaman" under way in the distance, all confirm that these affecting images are most likely to reveal an affluent Anglo-Indian family, "at home" in Madras.