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    IG_449: Drawing showing the interior decoration of houses in Cairo
    (GBR_London_VAM_IG_449)

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    Title

    Drawing Showing the Interior Decoration of Houses in Cairo

    Type of Object
    Graphic work · Sketch
    Dimensions
    31.2 x 43.8 cm
    Artist / Producer
    Wild, James William
    Dating
    c. 1845
    Location
    Victoria and Albert Museum, London
    Inventory Number
    E.3763-1938
    Research Project
    Luminosity of the East
    Author and Date of Entry
    Sarah Tabbal 2024

    Iconography

    Description

    This pencil and watercolour drawing by the British architect James William Wild (1814–1892) shows part of an interior in Cairo with several stucco and glass windows. Windows with different motifs can be seen, such as stylized vases of flowers, cypress trees, flowers, peacocks, Arabic calligraphy, and a large variety of abstract geometric forms.

    Iconclass Code
    25F35(PEACOCK) · ornamental birds: peacock
    25G3(CYPRESS) · trees: cypress
    25G41 · flowers
    41A6711 · flowers in a vase
    Iconclass Keywords
    bunch of flowers · cypress · flower · peacock · vase
    Inscription

    Section of the mandarah, / Mr. Lewis House in Cairo

    Materials, Technique and State of Preservation

    Technique

    Pencil, pen, ink and watercolour on paper.

    History

    Research

    Wild added a pencil note in the lower central part of this drawing indicating that the interior shown depicts part of the Cairene house in which the Victorian painter John Frederick Lewis (1804–1876) lived during his sojourn in Egypt for almost ten years (Weeks, 2014, pp. 40–43). Wild lived in Cairo at the same time as Lewis, between 1844 and 1847, and had access to Lewis’s traditional Cairene house (Thomas, 2013, p. 48). In their motifs and their arrangement, the windows depicted by Wild in this watercolour closely correspond to the windows in an interior painted in watercolour by Lewis (IG_119).

    Dating
    c. 1845
    Period
    1844 – 1847
    Related Locations
    House of Frederick Lewis, Cairo
    Place of Manufacture
    Cairo · Cairo Governorate · Egypt

    Provenance

    Owner
    Victoria and Albert Museum
    Previous Owner

    Elizabeth H.M. Wild

    Bibliography and Sources

    Literature

    Emily M. Weeks E. M. (2014). Cultures Crossed: John Frederick Lewis and the Art of Orientalism. London: Yale University Press.

    Thomas, A. (2013). James Wild, Cairo and the South Kensington Museum. In M. Volait (ed.), Le Caire dessiné et photographié au XIXe* *siècle (pp. 41–68). Paris: Picard.

    Image Information

    Name of Image
    GBR_London_VAM_IG_449
    Credits
    © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
    Link to the original photo

    Linked Objects and Images

    Linked Objects
    Mendurah in my House in Cairo

    Citation suggestion

    Tabbal, S. (2024). Drawing Showing the Interior Decoration of Houses in Cairo. In Vitrosearch. Retrieved December 5, 2025 from https://vitrosearch.ch/objects/2713293.

    Record Information

    Reference Number
    IG_449
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