1850
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
The Temple of Edfu: The Door of the Pylon is a 1850 by John Frederick Lewis, a Impressionism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a tall stone doorway half-buried in sand, sunlight raking across carved hieroglyphs and crumbling columns. Lewis lived in Cairo for nearly ten years. He sketched this temple while it was still buried forty feet deep—before most Europeans had even seen it. His lines are so sharp you can almost read the ancient carvings yourself. If you like this quiet precision, look up the technique called *sfumato*.
This notable recent acquisition is the work of John Frederick Lewis, who moved to Cairo in 1841 and stayed for almost a decade. He made this drawing on an expedition up the Nile that he took with his wife in 1849–50, around the same time that the first photographers arrived in Egypt. At that time,the temple complex at Edfu was buried to a depth of almost 40 feet. Lewis’s watercolor carefully renders the ruins and records the hieroglyphic inscription,but transcends archaeological description to evoke the thrill of exploration and discovery.Photographers,influenced by painters such as David…
Read the full account in the museum source.
John Frederick Lewis (1804–1876) was an English Orientalist painter. He specialized in Oriental and Mediterranean scenes in detailed watercolour or oils, very often repeating the same composition in a version in each…
See the richer artist pageYour cart is empty
Explore artworks →
