Lalla Rookh

Details

ARTHUR BOYD HOUGHTON (1836-1875)
Lalla Rookh
indistinctly signed and inscribed 'Lalla Rookh/Arthur Houghton' (on an old label attached to the stretcher)
oil on canvas
10 ¼ x 12 ¼ in. (26 x 31 cm.)

Provenance

with Abbott & Holder, London, April 1975, where purchased for the present collection.

Conditions of sale

Brought to you by

Adrian Hume-Sayer Director, Specialist

Lot Essay

Lalla Rookh was written by the Irish poet Thomas Moore and published in 1817. The eponymous heroine, a fictional daughter of the 17th century Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, falls in love with Feramorz, a poet in her entourage. Dutifully she enters the palace of her betrothed, the young King of Bukhara. Overcome, she swoons, only to be revived on hearing the voice of Feramorz who turns out to have been her betrothed in disguise.
Houghton was an outstanding book illustrator, as well as being a painter of contemporary genre. He was best known for his illustrations to Dalziel’s Arabian Nights, published in 1865.

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