Untitled (Three Pencil Drawings of Bombay Harbour)

a) Norman Maffei
Middle Ground, Island Fort, Bombay Harbour, India
16 June 1948
Inscribed with title and date upper right “Middle Ground, Bombay Harbour, 16 June 1948”; signed lower right Norman Maffei
Pencil on paper
10 × 16 in (25.4 × 40.6 cm)

Dated 16 June 1948, in the first year after Indian independence, Norman Maffei’s graphite study fixes a classic nautical prospect of Bombay Harbour: the low, bastioned mass of Middle Ground anchoring the foreground waters, and the recognisable silhouettes of the Gateway of India and Taj Mahal Palace rising on the left horizon. The artist’s brisk, slanted hatching renders a wind-scored sky and broken water, while tighter strokes articulate the masonry of the island fort and the pier structures dotted along its perimeter.

Middle Ground occupies a strategic point off Colaba, historically armed as a battery to warn and deter would-be attackers at the harbour approach. In the post-colonial period it has continued in ceremonial use as a saluting base of the Indian Navy; a small museum on the islet—now closed (2000)—once documented its defensive role. Maffei’s drawing, intimate in scale but documentary in intent, records this maritime threshold at a moment when imperial iconography persisted on the skyline even as political authority had shifted.

Formally, the sheet belongs to the mid-century tradition of reportage drawing: economical graphite passages establish atmosphere and movement, while sparing descriptive accents identify landmark architecture and harbour infrastructure. As a historical record it is valuable for its precise dating, legible inscriptions, and clear alignment of fortified islet, ceremonial waterfront, and commercial city, encapsulating Bombay’s identity as both harbour and metropolis.

b) Norman Maffei
Liberty Launch—Bombay, WWII Landing Craft
16 June 1948
Inscribed with title upper right and dated 16 June 1948; signed lower right
Pencil on paper
6.25 × 9.5 in (15.9 × 24 cm)

Dated 16 June 1948, this brisk harbour study by Norman Maffei records an ex-military landing craft working off Bombay (Mumbai) in the early post-war years. The artist’s inscription—“Liberty Launch – Bombay, WWII Landing Craft”—aptly reflects the period practice of redeploying Allied landing craft for civilian and port service after 1945. Such craft (LCVP/LCM/LCU types) were designed with a bow ramp for rapid loading and discharge and were widely repurposed worldwide for ferry, lightering and harbour duties once hostilities ceased.

Maffei’s drawing shows the squat, ramp-bow silhouette in lively seas, ringed with tyre fenders and crew at their stations, with additional workboats and a larger vessel beyond. The subject sits squarely in the working Bombay Harbour, a natural deep-water roadstead that underpinned the city’s commercial identity and was administered by the Bombay (now Mumbai) Port Trust from the late nineteenth century.

The sheet belongs to the mid-century tradition of reportage marine draughtsmanship: emphatic graphite hatching describes the wind-cut water and low sky, while tighter strokes articulate plating, fenders and wheelhouse detail. As a document of post-Independence maritime Bombay, it captures the liminal moment when the city’s harbour absorbed wartime technologies into peacetime labour—an American-designed landing craft now a local workhorse. For context, contemporary U.S. landing craft of the LCM/LCVP families measured c. 36–50 ft and featured the characteristic ramped bow seen here, enabling flexible use at beaches, piers and lighters.

c) Norman Maffei (active mid-20th century)
Indian Passing ’Neath Our Stern — Bombay, India
16 June 1948
Inscribed with title and dated 16 June 1948 (upper right); signed lower right
Pencil on paper
7.5 × 12 in (19 × 30.5 cm)

Dated 16 June 1948, this lively graphite study by Norman Maffei captures a lateen-rigged local sailing craft—likely a dhow, the Arabian Sea workboat long characterised by its triangular lateen sail—slipping close across the artist’s viewpoint “beneath our stern”. The foreground incident is set against a busy Bombay Harbour, with merchantmen at anchor and auxiliary craft criss-crossing the roadstead.

The skyline indicated at left aligns with the ceremonial waterfront around Apollo Bunder, where the Gateway of India (foundation 1913; opened 1924) faces the Taj Mahal Palace hotel (opened 1903). Notably, the Gateway also served as the departure point for the last British troops in February 1948, placing Maffei’s drawing within months of that historic moment.

As a document of the early post-Independence harbour, the sheet reflects a port administered since the 1870s by the Bombay (Mumbai) Port Trust, whose deep natural anchorage made the city India’s principal maritime gateway. Maffei’s brisk hatching and emphatic water patterns belong to mid-century reportage marine draughtsmanship, privileging immediacy over finish; yet the work remains topographically specific in its boat type, skyline and working-harbour traffic.

Your note about “a busy traffic day … post-Independence” accords with the visual evidence: the drawing records Bombay at a moment when traditional sail, harbour lighters and ocean-going steamers co-existed within one of the subcontinent’s most active roadsteads. The result is an intimate but telling vignette of a maritime city in transition—modernising commerce layered over enduring local seamanship.

BOMBAY HARBOUR VIEWS: THREE PENCIL STUDIES BY NORMAN MAFFEI, 16 JUNE 1948

These three pencil studies by Norman Maffei, all dated 16 June 1948, collectively record Bombay Harbour in the early years of Indian independence. Maffei’s sheets—Middle Ground, Island Fort, Liberty Launch—Bombay, WWII Landing Craft, and Indian Passing ’Neath Our Stern—capture the layered maritime life of the city at a moment of transition only months after Indian independence. Each sheet captures a different facet of the city’s maritime identity: the enduring presence of Middle Ground Fort, a colonial-era outpost retained as a naval saluting base; a surplus World War II landing craft, emblematic of the repurposing of military hardware into peacetime service; and a traditional lateen-rigged dhow, a reminder of indigenous seamanship continuing alongside modern shipping and colonial architecture. Together, these drawings encapsulate the coexistence of imperial iconography, post-war modernisation, and local maritime tradition within one of South Asia’s busiest ports.

The artist, Norman Maffei (1923–2015), was an American soldier and draughtsman who developed his craft during service with the U.S. Army’s 45th Infantry Division in Italy during the Second World War. There he became known for sketching frontline operations, landscapes, and the daily realities of military life. After the war, he pursued formal training at the Albright Art Institute in Buffalo, New York, and briefly worked in the Merchant Marine, where extended sea voyages deepened his familiarity with harbours and shipping. This dual background—military reportage and maritime experience—left a lasting imprint on his art. Maffei developed a distinctive approach rooted in the economy of line and tonal hatching, traits visible across his Bombay sheets.

In these 1948 views, Maffei demonstrates the qualities that define his practice: a reportage immediacy, where strokes are brisk and observational, yet consistently topographically accurate; and an instinct for anchoring each image in time and place, with precise inscriptions and dating. His graphite drawings combine atmosphere with documentary clarity—evoking wind-swept waters, bustling craft, and looming landmarks—without lapsing into romanticised finish. The result is not simply aesthetic but historical: each sheet offers visual testimony of the harbour in its lived reality, rather than in an idealised guise.

The timing of these drawings is significant. By June 1948, British forces had only recently withdrawn from Bombay, their final departure marked at the Gateway of India in February that year. Maffei’s scenes thus capture the harbour in flux: colonial fortifications and architecture still dominated the skyline, while independence had shifted political sovereignty and repurposed infrastructure. In Liberty Launch, the American-designed landing craft embodies this shift, its presence illustrating how wartime vessels found second lives in peacetime commerce. In Indian Passing ’Neath Our Stern, the dhow gliding past Maffei’s vantage conveys continuity, linking the present with centuries of local maritime culture. Middle Ground, Island Fort stands between the two, a bastioned remnant of colonial defence still active under new authority.

Norman Maffei’s works today are valued as much for their historical and ethnographic content as for their artistic qualities. His careful inscriptions, fidelity to lived scenes, and compositional clarity make them effective as both art objects and historical records. The three drawings presented here exemplify his oeuvre: intimate sheets that document the harbour as lived space, balancing the monumental with the everyday, and registering Bombay’s role as both a working port and a symbolic gateway to India at a moment of profound transformation.

(Set of three)

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