drawing
- Museum number
- 1916,1113.1
- Description
-
An oriental interior with figures; doorway to right, with man wearing fez entering, two figures seated on sofa in centre, with other figures behind, figures standing to left
Black and red chalk, with bodycolour and graphite on buff paper
- Production date
- 1840 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 353 millimetres
-
Width: 511 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- This drawing depicts the interior of a café in Istanbul (Constantinople). It is not signed or dated but it is likely to have been done in 1840-41 when Lewis was in Istanbul. A more developed version, with additional figures on the right, was with Spink and Sons in 1995 and was in their 'Visions of the Orient' exhibition that year, cat. no. 11, where it was acquired by a private collector and then sold by that collector's daughter at Sotheby's 7 July 2011 (lot 358). In the Spink catalogue, they noted that the coffee house is an elaborate 19th century baroque building probably on the shore of the Golden Horn and Lewis's interest in Islamic architecture and artefacts has led him to pick the details in the carving and tiles on the left. The composition does not seem to be related to any of Lewis's finished paintings.(Information kindly provided by Briony Llewellyn 1 Feb.2010; for further reading see her article on Wilkie and Lewis in Constantinople in the Burlington Magazine, CLXV, Sept. 2003). A well-known lithograph titled 'Cafe on the Bosphorus' is not related to this drawing but was published in Lewis's 'Illustrations of Constantinople' [1838]. These were done from drawings made by John Richard Coke Smyth in 1835-6. Lewis himself did go to Istanbul until October 1840 when David Wilkie wrote to William Collins noting his arrival (see J. M. Lewis, 'John Frederick Lewis, RA', 1978, p. 21. The drawing that was with Spink was not included in this catalogue of his work).
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
2022, 14 June -18 Sept, London, British Museum, G43a, Life in a Cup
- Acquisition date
- 1916
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1916,1113.1