Above Aswan

Charles Vacher was a prolific painter of landscape and topographical subjects, championed by Ruskin. Of 'The Kabyle Mountains at sunset' , exhibited at the New Watercolour Society in 1857, Ruskin wrote: 'The rocks and aloe on the left are very beautifully drawn, the tone of the distant mountains most true, and all the effects more delicately felt than hitherto in this painter's work'. This watercolour, executed six years later, was one of several made during extensive tours of Algeria and Egypt, for Vacher was a rapid worker and he often painted twelve or sixteen highly finished works in one year, and at his death over two thousand sketches were found in his studio (Christie's held his studio sale on 21 February 1884). He exhibited oils at the Royal Academy and the British Institution, but the majority of his oeuvre was shown at the New Watercolour Society with 324 works.