Watercolor and gouache over graphite on off-white wove paper, laid down on contemporary mount
Dimensions:
Sheet: 16 3/4 x 11 7/16 inches (42.5 x 29.1 cm)
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1975.4.1321
Gallery Label:
In July 1840 Lewis left Britain for a decade, traveling through the Mediterranean and finally settling in Cairo, where the novelist Thackeray described him living “a dreamy, hazy, lazy, tobaccofied life.” Lewis’s stay in the East inspired a shift in his style towards a meticulous handling and a luminous, high-toned palette mixed with copious amounts of gouache, already seen in this watercolor from his visit to Athens on his way to Cairo. On his return to England in 1852, Lewis was quickly hailed as watercolor’s greatest living exponent. The Art Journal called his style “the ne plus ultra of finish in water-color art.” Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)
