The Mosque al -'Abbasi, near Damietta, Egypt

Details

William Holman Hunt, A.R.S.A., R.S.W., H.R.W.S. (1827-1910)
The Mosque al -'Abbasi, near Damietta, Egypt
inscribed 'Ruined Mosque near Damietta' (lower left)
pencil, heightened with white, on grey prepared paper
2¾ x 8¾ in. (7 x 22.3 cm.)

Provenance

The artist's family, and by descent to;
Mrs Elisabeth Burt; Sotheby's, London, 10 October 1985, as part of lot 20.
with The Piccadilly Gallery, London, 1999, from whom purchased by the present owner.

Literature

W.H. Hunt, Pre-Raphaelitism and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, London, 1905, I, pp. 394-5, illustrated.
J. Bronkhurst, William Holman Hunt: A Catalogue Raisonné, London and New Haven, 2006, II, p. 60, no. D99, illustrated.

Exhibited

Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery and London, Victoria and Albert Museum, William Holman Hunt: An Exhibition arranged by the Walker Art Gallery, 1969, no. 148, illustrated.
On loan to the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1965 to 1985.
New York, Shepherd Gallery, English Romantic Art 1840-1920: Pre-Raphaelites, Academics & Symbolists, 1998, no. 32.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Hunt visited the city of Damietta, in northern Egypt, in May 1854, on his way to Jaffa in the company of Thomas Seddon (1821-1856). Hunt drew two studies of houses in the city, intrigued by the way they opened out onto the water of the harbour (Bronkhurst, op. cit., nos. D97 & D98). Bronkhurst has identified the subject as the Mosque al-'Abbasi, to the west of the city, a building which was in disrepair when Hunt drew it, but has now been rebuilt.

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