Footnotes

Provenance
Private collection, UK.

Of all the animals that John Frederick Lewis painted, the camel was the most frequently depicted. His fascination is revealed by the sheer number of sketches and finished paintings, both in oil and watercolour. He would paint them in detail obsessively, as noted by Ruskin, who asserted that 'Let him examine, for instance, with a good lens, the eyes of the camels, and he will find that there is as much painting beneath their drooping fringes as would, with most painters, be thought enough for the whole head'.¹

Lewis used his noted realism, his unmatched skill in drawing and painting textiles, by studying the elaborate trappings of camel saddles, with their flamboyant tassels and subtly woven saddle cloths. He understood the pride that camel owners took in making the best of their favourite animals. Consequently, there are a significant number of his studies and sketches of these dromedaries now in museums, art galleries and private collections throughout the world.

In the early 1870s, Lewis decided to finish some early sketches and paintings which were still in his studio, perhaps to make preparations in order to provide the maximum value for his wife Marian when she finally inherited his estate. He engaged a studio assistant to help him with this task. This seems to be what happened to the present sketch.

Briony Llewellyn discovered that Lewis had at least one studio assistant, called William Britten (1848-1916) a late Pre-Raphaelite painter. He helped Lewis with some pictures in the early 1870s when Lewis was in obvious physical decline. The painter Frederick Goodall is also said to have helped Lewis, working with him on a version of The Dellal (1875). Lewis had obviously influenced Goodall in his earlier years, and probably inspired the younger artist in his own accurate depictions of the camel.

The central part of the present lot is most likely an early study for the painting called On the banks of the Nile, Upper Egypt (1876, now in the collection of the Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection) although there are other paintings dating back to the late 1840s that are candidates as well. It is probable that it was Britten who put in the background of the pyramid of Giza, as an obvious way of localizing it. Incidentally, the painting at Yale also has the work of a studio assistant in the background, in particular, the images of the women on the left. Lewis, in his response concerning this picture describes the techniques, the pigments and the support he used. He also states that the painting was 'sketched out about ten years ago – put aside until 1872. Touched on occasionally until 1875. Scarcely considered as finished yet'.²

The present sketch is a well-documented work that combines two phases of Lewis's work and is one of the few left that are not in museums and art galleries worldwide.

We are grateful to Charles Newton for his assistance in cataloguing this lot. The work will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the artist's work.

¹Academy Notes, 1856, p. 74.
²Royal Academy of Arts, Members' methods of procedure ('Leighton's Painting Process'), 1876, RAA/LIB/4/1.