A Turk smoking a pipe beneath an awning, Lycia

This watercolour depicts one of the local tribesmen who Müller encountered in Lycia, a remote and mountainous area of south-west Turkey, which he visited in 1843. He was there at the same time as Charles Fellow, an archaeologist excavating the ancient ruins and removing several of them for shipment to the British Museum. Müller was as interested in the nomadic people as the magnificent scenery and sketched them frequently. His biographer, N. Neal Solly, described how he would sketch the figures rapidly from life at the entrance to his tent and as soon as he had completed the figure he would turn round, and gazing for a moment at the surrounding scenery, would wash in a sketchy background appropriate to eacg subject, and at the same time characteristic of the country.' (N. Neal Solly, Memoir of t he LIfe of William James Müleler, 1875).

We are grateful to Briony Llewelyn for her help with this catalogue entry.