drawing;
print
- Museum number
- 1940,0730.2
- Description
-
The studio of a wealthy amateur artist; groups of seated and standing figures, some sketching a skeleton, part of a suit of armour, or a man in a breastplate, with a man dressed in oriental clothes seated on patterned carpet smoking a hookah, a dog in the centre, and in the background an alcove with spears on either side and figurines above it. c.1842/50
Watercolour, touched with bodycolour and white, over a lithograph
- Production date
- 1842-1850
- Dimensions
-
Height: 545 millimetres
-
Width: 641 millimetres (irregular)
- Curator's comments
- When this lithograph was purchased, A P Oppé wrote to Hind in P&D to say he had seen the original drawing for it at Christie's June 28m, 1940 lot 88 (21 x 25 in). In fact it was probably this hand-coloured lithograph that Oppé saw at Christie's. He wrote that a few years earlier he had seen an uncoloured, lettered version identifying the original artist as Coke Smyth. The Museum seems to have purchased the hand coloured lithograph from Meatyard shortly after the Christie's sale. There was a lot of correspondence between Hind and others speculating on the identity of the sitters, but they were not able to put a firm name to any of them. It is possible that the figure in lower right is to do with Coke Smyth's trip to Constantinople and the figure in the left with his visit to Canada in company of Lord Durham. Some speculated the figure standing second left was Prince Albert. The correspondence is in the artist's dossier (British school) in P&D.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1940
- Acquisition notes
- This item has an uncertain or incomplete provenance for the years 1933-45. The British Museum welcomes information and assistance in the investigation and clarification of the provenance of all works during that era.
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Registration number
- 1940,0730.2
