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View on the Nile near Cairo

image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art | CC0 1.0

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Date

c.1855

Artist

Thomas Seddon (1821-1856)

Collection

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Description

Seddon here uses a striking pastel palette to evoke a sunset over the Nile. A walled village and palm trees at left are silouetted against a lemon sky, while tiny buildings in Cairo gleam pink and violet in the right distance, behind diabeyahs described in similar tones. The artist visited the middle East between 1853 and 1854 with his friend and teacher William Holman Hunt. Adopting local dress, the young man spent four months in Cairo, then sailed down the Nile with Hunt, painting watercolors from the boat. This strikingly beautiful drawing applies Pre-Raphaelite techniques, and likely was made in the studio. It relates closely to an oil at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Works that Seddon exhibited in London in 1855 prompted the critic John Ruskin to declare: "Before I saw these, I never thought it possible to attain such an effect of tone and light without sacrificing truth to color." Shortly after returning to Cairo in 1857, with a string of commissions in hand, Seddon died tragically of dysentery.

Image Licence

CC0 1.0

Image Credit

image courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Location

Cairo, Egypt

Country

Tags

Boats
Cityscapes
Rivers
Transport

Category

Landscapes & Seascapes

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© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform

© 2024 Watercolour World | Technology by The Museum Platform