The Court of the Lions from the Hall of Justice, Granada

John Frederick Lewis was the son of the engraver and aquatinter Frederick Christian Lewis. Lewis lived in Spain between 1832 and 1834. He first visited Madrid and then moved south to Granada, where he began his sketches and drawings of the Alhambra, the palace and fortress of the Moorish Kings of Granada. This set of sketches is important as Lewis's first sustained attempt at architectural drawing. He remained in Granada until 12 November 1832 when he departed for Seville via Cordova. Lewis's spanish trip fired his enthusiasm for the East and the exotic and established Lewis as an important artist. As a result of his trip Lewis published two sets of lithographs, his Sketches and Drawings of the Alhambra and his Sketches of Spain and Spanish characters, 1837. Another drawing of the Court of the Lions preparatory for the lithograph but of more horizontal format and in which the girl in the foreground is replaced by a man was sold Christie's London, 4 November 1975, lot 135 (110 gns.).