A 13

Col. Munroe’s dedicated work in Travancore impressed the CMS and they decided to send more missionaries to the state. Rev. Joseph Fen was a highly acclaimed barrister in England when he decided to take up missionary work in Travancore. In 1818 he accompanied Rev. Henry Baker to Travancore, along with Mrs. Fenn nee Sarah Finch. Within no time Rev. Fenn gained scholarship in Malayalam and Sanskrit. In 1818 October Rev. Bailey gave his position as Principal of the CMS College to Rev. Fenn. He introduced teaching the works of Virgil, Cicero, Horace, Demosthenes and Euclid.

Vinu V.V takes out a page from Rev. Fenn’s life and times at the CMS College. In 1819 Fenn had built a house for his living and pursuit of knowledge. In 1825 Col. James Welsh did a pictorial documentation of the buildings that the missionaries had built upon their arrival in Kottayam in order to enhance the educational facilities at the CMS College. Vinu’s relief work follows Col. Welsh’s sketch of Fenn’s house. While sticking to the original drawing, Vinu has added a few more trees in the foreground in order to frame the historical building in its historical time and to connect it with the present history. The quintessential magic of such a history is suggested with a star like abstract form in the foreground of the panel.