Gladys Peto often referred to Cyprus as a country that feels familiar, and one illustration in particular does indeed welcome the viewers at home and introduces them to the life of the British officials in Cyprus. At the Country Club in Limassol, the people are certainly British, dressed in the 1920s fashion with bow-ties and smoking jackets, sipping long drinks, fanning themselves, seated on comfortable cane armchairs.
The décor is foreign: miniature trees in well-designed wooden pots; an intricate ceiling lamp, probably imported; tall cut glass decanters and tumblers. The servant is dressed in a lavish Middle Eastern costume, probably specially designed for the household personnel and totally foreign to any Cypriot mode of dress. The artist has represented the British community of the island in a balcony scene, reminiscent of a Noel Coward’s play.
This drawing, compared with other works illustrated in Peto’s book, brings out the cultural differences of the two nations and suggests not only colonial attitudes but also the inflexibility of the British with regards to their customary social habits. The club appears here as an exclusive refuge of the ruling class whenever it wanted to distance itself from the local scene and enter a more “civilised world”.
PNT-00426 > Gladys Emma Peto (1890-1977), The hours after dinner, Chinese Ink, 27x18 cm, 1926
© Costas and Rita Severis Foundation
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