The Bazaar of the Ghûriyah from the Steps of the Mosque of El-Ghûri, Cairo by John Frederick Lewis, 1841-51, graphite, watercolour and gouache on paper, 54,0 x 37,9 cm, Tate Gallery, London

After visiting Italy, Greece and Spain in search of subject matter, Lewis went to Egypt  in 1841. He stayed there for ten years and continued to paint Middle- Eastern scenes until the end of his life.

This sketch was probably created on the spot. It shows the bazaar in the street of the Ghûriyah on the east side of the mosque of El-Ghûri. Lewis’s art provided English viewers with a persuasive vision of Middle- Eastern life, based on first hand observations like this. Nonetheless, his finished paintings incorporated many traditional fantasies and assumptions about the Islamic world. (www.tate.org.uk)

170 years later, it looks exactly the same…

Study for ‘The Courtyard of the Coptic Patriarch’s House in Cairo’ by John Frederick Lewis (1805-1876), c.1864, oil on wood, 36,8 x 35,6 cm,Tate Modern, London

This study of the patriarch’s house was executed after Lewis’s return from Egypt in 1851, using the sketches he brought back.

This work highlights Lewis’s ability to paint figures and setting with careful attention to light and shade, produced here by the top-lit courtyard.Lewis caused a sensation when he exhibited one of his Near Eastern scenes in London in 1850. John Ruskin admired his attention to detail, claiming that in truth-to-nature he ranked alongside the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. (www.tate.org.uk)

This building must be today’s Coptic Museum!!

The Supper at Emmaus by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1601-02, oil on canvas, 141 x 196.2 cm, National Gallery, London

Saint George and the Dragon by Paolo Uccello, ca 1470, oil on canvas, 55.6 x 74.2 cm, National Gallery, London

(painting of the month in the National Gallery, April 2011)

Noli me tangere by Titian (Tiziano Vecellio), about 1514, oil on canvas, 110.5 x 91.9 cm, National Gallery, London

Adoration of the Magi by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1564, National Gallery, London

The Baptism of Christ by Piero della Francesca, 1440-45, egg tempera on poplar, 167 x 116 cm, London, National Gallery

Saint Jerome in his Study by Antonello da Messina, ca 1475, oil on lime, 45.7 x 36.2 cm, National Gallery, London

The Patron Saint of Translators, and hence mine. :)

bonjourtableau:

Saint Jérôme dans son étude, 1474, Antonello de Messine,

National Gallery

(via blogthoven)

The Nativity at Night by Geertgen tot Sint Jans, possibly about 1490, Oil on oak, 34 x 25.3 cm, National Gallery, London

Saint Catherine of Alexandria by Raphael, about 1507, oil on wood, 72.2 × 55.7 cm, National Gallery, London