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continued to paint and exhibit almost up to the end of his life, but in 1873 he seems to have suffered a crisis in his health from which he never recovered before his death on 15 August 1876. After being largely forgotten for decades, he became extremely fashionable, and expensive, from the 1970s and good works now fetch prices into the millions of dollars or pounds at auction.
208:, an old friend, who described him in the comic account of his travels he published as a "languid Lotus-eater" leading a "dreamy, hazy, lazy, tobaccofied life" in a version of local dress that included a "Damascus scimitar" – Lewis was often photographed in such a costume in later life. In 1847 he married Marian Harper in
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Lewis wrote very little, even letters, and when he was required to address the watercolourists as their president at a dinner in 1855, he stood up and after a while sat down again without saying a word. Partly as a result of the absence of sources, no full biography was published until 2014. Lewis
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in his later works. Unlike many other
Orientalist painters who took a salacious interest in the women of the Middle East, he "never painted a nude", and his wife modelled for several of his harem scenes. These, with the rare examples by the classicist painter
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He wrote to a colleague: "Generally in spite of all my hard work, I find water colour to be thoroly unremunerative that I can stand it no longer—it is all, all always, rolling the stone up the hill—no rest, and such little pay!"
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His very careful and loving representation of
Islamic architecture, furnishings, screens, and costumes set new standards of realism, which influenced other artists, including the leading French Orientalist painter
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The death is announced this morning of Mr. John
Frederick Lewis, R.A. Mr. Lewis, who died on Tuesday, at Walton-on-Thames, was born in London on the 14th of July, 1805, and was thus upwards of seventy years of
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from 1855, though this was just as he was abandoning the technique for oils. The
Society did not allow members to exhibit works in oils, which Lewis now wanted to do, and he resigned in 1858.
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He continued to paint watercolours for most of the 1850s, before returning to painting with similar subjects and style in oils, which were quicker to produce and sold for better prices.
80:, imagine "the harem as a place of almost English domesticity, ... ... women's fully clothed respectability suggests a moral healthiness to go with their natural good looks".
174:(1836). For a while he became known as "Spanish Lewis", to distinguish him from "Indian Lewis", his brother Frederick Christian, who went to India in 1834 before dying young.
185:, who became the other leading British Orientalist, mainly through his lithographs, was in Spain and the Middle East at the same time as Lewis, though the two rarely met, and
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in rather grand style between 1841 and 1851, in a traditional upper-class house that he often used as a setting for his paintings. He was visited by
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he had in Cairo. He published prints of the big cats in 1826 and twelve domesticated animals in 1826, and painted two large scenes with animals in
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107:(1779–1856), an engraver and landscape painter, whose German father had moved to England and changed his name from Ludwig. The leading bookbinder
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283:) and also watercolour, trying to push the price of the latter up to approach that of the former. In his technique, "Independently of the
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or oils, very often repeating the same composition in a version in each medium. He lived for several years in a traditional mansion in
287:, Lewis had evolved a similar method, applying colour with a minute touch on a white ground to produce a glowing jewel-like effect".
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In Egypt he made large numbers of precise drawings that he turned into paintings after his return to
England in 1851. He lived in
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of Middle
Eastern life and more idealized scenes in upper-class Egyptian interiors with little apparent Western influence.
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Lewis was an early traveller on what was to become a well-trodden route for
English artists, though some ten years behind
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had been in Cairo in 1838. But no other
English artist of the period had such a sustained period in what was then the
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Lewis became an
Associate of the Royal Academy (ARA) in 1859 and a member (an RA) in 1865, and was President of the
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265:(now in a private collection in Japan, and rather faded) was a huge hit when exhibited in London, and praised by
227:, 46 × 35 cm, oil on panel, 1855. The young woman in the background was reworked as a standalone subject in
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A Frank
Encampment in the Desert of Mount Sinai – 1842 – The Convent of St. Catherine in the Distance
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In the 1860s his usual practice was to paint two versions of the same composition, in oils (to exhibit at the
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and other critics. This is in fact the "only major work certainly completed" in Cairo before his return.
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63:, and after his return to England in 1851 he specialized in highly detailed works showing both realistic
95:, 1873, version in oils, using drawings of Lewis' house in Cairo, which he had left over 20 years before
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Tromans, quote 135; 134 on his wife; generally: 22–32, 80–85, 130–135, and see index
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Lewis toured Europe in 1827, the year he began to paint in watercolour, then travelled in Spain and
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Sketches and Drawings of the Alhambra, made during a Residence in Granada in the Years 1833–4
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was John Frederick's uncle, and his younger brothers, another Frederick Christian and
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in 1840, after Italy and Greece. He continued to Egypt and lived in
692:/Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press, retrieved 14 May 2015,
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Iskander bey (Mohamed el Mahdi el faransawi) and his servant ca.1848
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Review of Weeks, Emily M. "Cultures Crossed" by Caroline Williams (
55:. He specialized in Oriental and Mediterranean scenes in detailed
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Cultures Crossed: John Frederick Lewis and the Art of Orientalism
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119:(1802–1873), a childhood neighbour and friend of John Frederick.
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728:"Oil and Water: (Re)Discovering John Frederick Lewis (1804–76)"
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between 1832 and 1834. The drawings he made were turned into
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Lewis and Landseer trained together in the workshop of Sir
36:, showing English aristocrats on a tour, watercolour, 1856
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Self-Censorship in the Harem Paintings of J. F. Lewis
261:from 1854 until his death. In 1850 his watercolour
714:The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting
806:
712:Tromans, Nicholas, Weeks, Emily M., and others,
251:The Harem – Introduction of an Abyssinian Slave
172:Lewis's Sketches of Spain and Spanish Character
503:John Clark(e) with the animals at Sandpit Gate
473:. Vol. 33. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
144:John Clark(e) with the animals at Sandpit Gate
776:Paintings in Museums and Public Art Galleries
196:In 1837 he left for travels that took him to
766:22 artworks by or after John Frederick Lewis
346:And the Prayer of Faith Shall Save the Sick
166:by him and other artists, and published as
702:, 1993, Thames and Hudson (World of Art),
225:An Armenian lady, Cairo – The love missive
126:. Initially Lewis, like Landseer, was an
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193:as Lewis did on his last period abroad.
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633:Tromans, 26; 80–81; see Further reading
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570:Tromans, 132; Preston; Trueherz, 120
292:Society of Painters in Water Colours
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103:on 14 July 1804. He was the son of
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615:Tromans, 19 (before the biography)
588:Weeks, quoted in note 26, and text
464:"Lewis, Charles (1786–1836)"
451:
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855:19th-century English male artists
759:
734:, Volume 12, Issue 2, Autumn 2013
732:Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide
653:"Death of Mr. J. F. Lewis, R.A."
470:Dictionary of National Biography
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825:19th-century English painters
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845:English Orientalist painters
668:– via Newspapers.com.
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660:. 18 August 1876. p. 6
507:, Royal Collection website.
399:List of Orientalist artists
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206:William Makepeace Thackeray
48:(1804–1876) was an English
25:A photo from the late 1860s
16:English Orientalist painter
10:
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716:, 2008, Tate Publishing,
105:Frederick Christian Lewis
387:In the Beys Garden, 1865
361:On the Banks of the Nile
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840:English watercolourists
694:(subscription required)
642:Weeks, note 34 and text
624:Weeks, note 27 and text
597:Weeks, note 30 and text
561:Preston; Tromans, 80–81
579:Preston; Trueherz, 120
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830:English male painters
657:The Pall Mall Gazette
448:Weeks; Tromans, 25–27
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835:English orientalists
793:Visions of the harem
782:John Frederick Lewis
778:(artcyclopedia.com).
316:Highland Hospitality
187:William James Müller
113:Charles George Lewis
41:John Frederick Lewis
850:Royal Academicians
700:Victorian Painting
698:Treuherz, Julian,
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231:, two years later.
136:Windsor Great Park
99:Lewis was born in
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784:("Victorian web")
726:Weeks, Emily M.,
685:Preston, Harley,
240:The Coffee Bearer
229:The Coffee Bearer
216:Return to England
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744:Weeks, Emily M.
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65:genre scenes
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820:1876 deaths
815:1804 births
687:"Lewis (i)"
543:Tromans, 26
459:Lee, Sidney
267:John Ruskin
170:(1835) and
164:lithographs
57:watercolour
50:Orientalist
809:Categories
708:050020263X
405:References
263:The Hareem
210:Alexandria
181:in Spain.
84:Early life
505:, c. 1825
410:Footnotes
393:See also
664:23 June
552:Preston
525:Preston
516:Preston
492:Preston
483:Preston
421:Preston
160:Morocco
154:Travels
132:gazelle
53:painter
770:Art UK
720:
706:
363:, 1876
348:, 1872
333:, 1854
318:, 1832
138:, now
101:London
302:Works
202:Cairo
61:Cairo
772:site
718:ISBN
704:ISBN
671:age.
666:2024
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45:RA
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142:(
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
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