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Lot Essay
The art of John Frederick Lewis can be viewed in three phases: the animal paintings of his youth; Spanish scenes painted in early adulthood; and the remainder of his life spent depicting the Orient inspired by a visit to Constantinople followed by a decade in Cairo. When Lewis left London in 1837 it would be fourteen years before his return. By then he had entirely devoted his oeuvre to watercolour and had been a member of the Old Water-Colour Society (O.W.C.S.) for over eight years. Moorish architecture was not unfamiliar to him as previous travels had led him to the Alhambra and Morocco where he had first glimpsed Islamic culture. By 1841, when Lewis reached Cairo, he had also encountered the fever for everything oriental felt across Europe. Lewis was certainly aware of the French tradition dominated by Ingres who was director of the French Academy at the Villa Medici when Lewis lived in Rome in the late 1830's.
While in Cairo Lewis immersed himself wholly in local custom. When his friend, the author Thackery, came to visit he found him living 'like a languid Lotus-Eater - a dreamy, hazy, lazy, tobaccofied life' (W. M. Thackeray, Cornhill to Grand Cairo, Sussex, 1991 ed., p. 146). His dress and manners were that of a wealthy Ottoman gentleman and English custom was far from his mind. Britain seemed so far removed that Lewis had sent nothing to the O.W.C.S. since Easter Day at Rome, 1841. In 1848 the society notified him declaring he was ignoring the membership rules that required an annual submission. With a letter of apology Lewis requested that he be reinstated but still did not send a painting for a further two years. In 1851 Lewis finally returned to England to settle down with his new wife and a wealth of sketches and paintings that were to form the basis of his work for the rest of his life.
Prince Hassan and his Nubian servant reveals how intimately Lewis had been involved in Cairo life. According to the inscription it was commissioned by Mohammed Ali Pasha (1769-1889), Ottoman viceroy of Egypt (1805-1848) and founding member of a dynasty that was to rule until the middle of the twentieth century. Another version of this painting was exhibited at the Fine Art Society in 1978 (no. 44) and illustrated on the front cover of the catalogue, Eastern Encounters - Orientalist Painters of the Nineteenth Century.
While in Cairo Lewis immersed himself wholly in local custom. When his friend, the author Thackery, came to visit he found him living 'like a languid Lotus-Eater - a dreamy, hazy, lazy, tobaccofied life' (W. M. Thackeray, Cornhill to Grand Cairo, Sussex, 1991 ed., p. 146). His dress and manners were that of a wealthy Ottoman gentleman and English custom was far from his mind. Britain seemed so far removed that Lewis had sent nothing to the O.W.C.S. since Easter Day at Rome, 1841. In 1848 the society notified him declaring he was ignoring the membership rules that required an annual submission. With a letter of apology Lewis requested that he be reinstated but still did not send a painting for a further two years. In 1851 Lewis finally returned to England to settle down with his new wife and a wealth of sketches and paintings that were to form the basis of his work for the rest of his life.
Prince Hassan and his Nubian servant reveals how intimately Lewis had been involved in Cairo life. According to the inscription it was commissioned by Mohammed Ali Pasha (1769-1889), Ottoman viceroy of Egypt (1805-1848) and founding member of a dynasty that was to rule until the middle of the twentieth century. Another version of this painting was exhibited at the Fine Art Society in 1978 (no. 44) and illustrated on the front cover of the catalogue, Eastern Encounters - Orientalist Painters of the Nineteenth Century.