The line and wash drawing Courtyard of the Painter’s House, Cairo by John Frederick Lewis (1804–1876) was executed around 1843. It depicts a traditional Cairene house from the outside. Lewis drew the architectural details of the courtyard, such as the mashrabiyya and the stucco and glass windows, with great precision.
Watercolour.
During his sojourn in Egypt for almost ten years between 1841 and 1851, Lewis made careful drawings of the traditional house in Cairo in which he lived, and which may be represented in this painting (Weeks, 2014, pp. 40–43). The studies Lewis made in Egypt served as sources for the artist when creating later works. This drawing could have been used as a model for the building in the background of Lewis’s painting The Midday Meal, Cairo (1875, oil on canvas, 88.3 × 114.3cm, Christie’s 2005, lot 15). In this oil painting, stucco and glass windows with the motifs of stylized vases of flowers and peacocks can be seen from the outside in a mashrabiyya (oriel).
Christie’s (2005, June 15). A Private Collection of Ottoman & Orientalist Paintings. Sale 7181. London.
Emily M. Weeks E. M. (2014). Cultures Crossed: John Frederick Lewis and the Art of Orientalism. London: Yale University Press.
Tromans, N. (ed.) (2008). The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting. London: Tate Publishing.