William Spencer Bagdatopoulos, Fishermen on the Malabar Coast, Circa 1925: The Friday Find

2 - 2 July 2026
  • This week we have a 1920s watercolour by painter William Spencer Bagdatopoulos, also known as W. S. Bylityilis. Bagdatopoulos was...

    This week we have a 1920s watercolour by painter William Spencer Bagdatopoulos, also known as W. S. Bylityilis.

     

    Bagdatopoulos was born on the island of Zante and spent his early years in the Netherlands, studying at the Academie van Beeldende Kunsten in Rotterdam. At 16 he toured Egypt and the Levant going on to study at the Athens Academy in 1906.

     

    He moved to London in 1908 where he worked as an artist, taking commissions for portraits, illustrations, murals and posters for shipping companies and the railways. 

     

    He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1909 and became active in the London Sketch Club.

     

    Ironically, I'm writing this entry on the Eurostar train to Paris.  Whilst I didn’t smoke as many cigarettes, nor wear a hat as pretty as this on my journey, I did pass a windmill. There the similarity ends…

  • He joined the British army in 1914, fighting in the First World War on the Western front in Fance. During...

    Image courtesy of retours.eu

    He joined the British army in 1914, fighting in the First World War on the Western front in Fance.

     

    During the war, Bagdatopoulos contributed to British propaganda efforts by designing posters for the National War Savings Committee, promoting financial support for the Allied cause. He returned to London after the war and resumed his career as a painter.

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  • In 1924 he was commissioned by the Times of India to tour the country, painting the people and places for publication in the newspaper, and for advertisements of luxury goods and rail travel.

     

    For the next 2 years he travelled widely throughout the country, painting the Golden Temple in Amritsar, the Taj Mahal, the Meenakshi Temple in Madurai and views of Darjeeling – and in this case, fishermen on the Malabar coast. These images are typical of the period, when bright colours and block lettering tempted tourists onto the trains. 

     

    His images were published in the richly illustrated Times of India Annual for many years to come.

  • He moved to the USA in 1928 and in 1930 exhibited 42 of his Indian views at the National Gallery...

    He moved to the USA in 1928 and in 1930 exhibited 42 of his Indian views at the National Gallery of Art, now the Smithsonian.  In later life he concentrated on producing etchings of an Orientalist manner. 

     

    Works are held by the British Museum, the Smithsonian, as well as the Delaware Art Museum and the National Rail Museum in the UK.

  • Whilst this work isn’t one of his overly romanticised views of India, it is a charming and atmospheric painting showing...

     A Mappila from Malabar District (1926 - 1933), British Library Collection

    Whilst this work isn’t one of his overly romanticised views of India, it is a charming and atmospheric painting showing a group of fishermen by their boats against a background of lush greenery.

     

    One of the identifiers of the location is the broad brimmed hat worn by the central figure, called an Ola Thoppi.  It marks this individual as a Mappila, part of the indigenous Muslim community of Northern Kerala on the Malabar coast.

  • William Spencer Bagdatopoulos

    Fishermen on the Malabar Coast, Circa 1925

    The painting comes from a British collection and was bought from Phillips auctioneers at some point in the early 2000s.  Here is a link to read more about his railway posters.

     

    Fact Sheet:

     

    William Spencer Bagdatopoulos (1888–1965)

    Untitled (Fishermen on the Malabar Coast), Circa 1925

    Watercolour on paper

    Signed lower right

    50 x 74 cm

    20 x 30 inches

     

    Provenance

    Private Collection;

    Phillips, London, unknown auction, circa 2000

    Private British Collection