John Frederick Lewis, R.A. (London 1804-1876 Walton-on-Thames)

A Suliote Warrior, Corfu

Details

John Frederick Lewis, R.A. (London 1804-1876 Walton-on-Thames)
A Suliote Warrior, Corfu
signed and dated 'J. F. Lewis 1840' (lower right)
pencil and watercolour heightened with bodycolour
16¼ x 10¼ in. (41.3 x 26 cm.)

Provenance

Randall Davies, F.S.A., London.
Collection of Nicholas Embiricos and by descent to the present owner.

Literature

The Old Watercolour Society's Club, John Frederick Lewis R.A., London, 1925-6, III, pl. VII.

Exhibited

London, Royal Academy, Exhibition of British Art circa 1000-1860, 1934, no. 833.
Bucharest, Exhibition of British Drawings, 1935-36, number untraced.
London, Colnaghi, May - June 1969, no. 77.

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Hélène Rihal

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Lot Essay

In July 1840 Lewis travelled to Constantinople via Albania, Corfu and Athens, returning to Cairo in 1841 where he remained for ten years. He was the first British artist to settle for such a sustained period in the Levant.

David Wilkie (1785-1841) was in Constaninople at the same time as Lewis and in a letter to William Collins wrote 'We have encountered John Lewis from Greece and Smyrna...He has been making most clever drawings as usual.' (Maj. Gen. Lewis, John Frederick Lewis, R.A., 1805-1876, Leigh-on-Sea, 1978 p. 21).

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