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A male figure in North African dress

Maker

(artist)
1805-1876

Title

Date of Production

(circa) 1841 - 1851

Medium

black, red and white chalk, pen and brown ink, watercolour and bodycolour on wove paper

Dimensions

Height: 38.7 cm
Width: 26.3 cm

Accession Number

D.2007.DS.27

Mode of Acquisition

Dorothy Scharf, bequest, 2007 (March)

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

Lewis probably produced this drawing during his ten-year stay in Egypt between 1841 and 1851. Unusually the man wears a Berber burnus (cloak), used as an outer garment in North Africa, with an agal or headrope, probably from Sinai. Lewis may have acquired this clothing in Cairo and used it incorrectly on a model, either a local Egyptian or a European, sketched in the city. However, the figure could be Lewis himself – one of the several ‘disguised’ Orientalist self-portraits he made.

Provenance

Mrs Ingle-Finch; her sale, Sotheby's (London), 11 July 1990, lot 133 (as 'An Arab'); purchased there by Fine Art Society (London), 1991; purchased there by Miss Dorothy Scharf, London (1942-2004); Scharf Bequest 2007

Exhibition History

Drawing on Arabian Nights, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 22/02/2023-04/06/2023

Life, Legend, Landscape - Victorian Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 17/02/2011-15/05/2011

Literature

Life, Legend, Landscape: Victorian Drawings & Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, 2011
no. 15
ill. on p. 79

Life, Legend, Landscape - Victorian Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, 2011
cat. no. 15
ill. on p. 79

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto: lower right, graphite: "J.F. Lewis / Cairo / L".

Collector's mark: none.

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