PAINTING BAZAAR AND HAREM – John Frederick Lewis, oils and watercolour, painting oriental themes

JOHN FREDERICK LEWIS 1/4 – He was a student of his father Frederick Christian (a landscape painter), and to the age of 15 he sold his first painting (a work that represented the animals). This English, who paints in the nineteenth century (during the Romantic period), is known for his paintings oriental, exotic scenes with a Mediterranean flavor, a sea he knows, having lived for 20 years in Spain and Morocco, Constantinople, Italy and Egypt, before returning to England. JOHN FREDERICK LEWIS 2/4 – In England, he continued to paint, using sketches made by him during his stay abroad. 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. JOHN FREDERICK LEWIS 3/4 – Lewis was an early traveller, on what was to become a well-trodden route for English artists. Looking at his paintings, you too will be fascinated by the attention to detail that he used in his work, documenting – in an almost photographic – the Middle East charm. JOHN FREDERICK LEWIS 4/4 – Observing the atmosphere of the bazaar, or life in the harem, you perceive the exact same taste that, in the late nineteenth century, inspired the construction of the salt of the Arab Hall, the Leighton House, London. In England, he lived in Walton-on-Thames (from 1854 until his death), its usual practice was to paint two versions of the same composition: in oils and also watercolour.

You can see more on Meeting Benches, looking for: JOHN FREDERICK LEWIS (1805/1876), ENGLISH PAINTER – The master of oruiental exotic scenes, with Mediterranean flavor