View of Tetouan from the Terrace of Cohen's House, Morocco

This on-the-spot sketch is a rare work from Roberts’s first foray outside Europe, to Morocco in March and April 1833. Leaving London in October 1832, he reached Madrid in December and travelled on to Cordoba, Granada, Malaga, Ronda and crossed to Tangiers from Gibraltar in March 1833. He wrote to his friend David Ramsay Hay at the end of March from Tangiers that he was `indeed in a New World’ and that `Yesterday was Market day – only fancy an African Market – I am so bewildered I cannot trust myself to write about it, only rely upon it I am not idle..’ (letter to Hay, 29th March 1833, National Library of Scotland).

Tetouan lies about 35 miles south-east of Tangiers at the foot of the Rif Mountain and the journey took Roberts through beautiful countryside. Having reached Tetouan, he got into trouble for not announcing his visit in advance as Christians were supposed to do. He was rescued by his host Mr Cohen who acted as his interpreter and guide during his eight days in Tetouan. Four views of Tetouan after Roberts were engraved for Thomas Roscoe’s `Spain and Morocco’ published in 1838. A watercolour preparatory to an engraving, `Tetuan: The Great Square’, is in the Wallace Collection, London.