The Great Gate of the Sultan Hasan Mosque, Cairo

55 x 38 cm

Pencil, watercolour with touches of white

By depicting the same scene from different points of view, Lewis acts like a photographic journalist, participating in in the daily rhythms of those whose lives animate his paintings. The Valsecchi watercolour can be compared to a work in the National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh (inv. D 3605). The same monument is seen here from a different perspective – street life assumes a primary role and the surrounding buildings take on a more prominent profile.

In the watercolour of Palazzo Butera, a crowd of people also gather on the street and in front of shops, thus giving movement to the composition and enriching the dominant and monumental presence of the building. The large entrance is decorated with muqarnas and is surmounted by a hemispherical dome.  The bi-chromatic colour scheme that decorates and the the walls, is redolent of decorative Islamic traditions.