Study for "The Pipe Bearer"

1841–51

Not on view

Lewis arrived in Cairo late in 1841 and stayed for nearly a decade, making hundreds of drawings and watercolors. This study of a Black Nubian servant wearing North African dress and holding a hookah was used, after the artist's return to London, to develop a figure in "The Pipe Bearer" (1856, oil on canvas, Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery). The image demonstrates an interest in physiognomy, and the positions different ethnic groups occupied within upper class Egyptian households. Shown in profile, the main figure's head is compared to a lighter-skinned man behind, and costume elements carefully recorded. Lewis's nuanced approach may have been influenced by David Wilkie, an artist friend he visited in Constantinople on his way to Cairo. Studies made in Egypt demonstrate the artist's eye for revealing details later used to create compositions that shaped how Britons imagined life in a society few encountered in person.

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Title: Study for "The Pipe Bearer"
Artist: John Frederick Lewis (British, London 1804–1876 Walton-on-Thames)
Date: 1841–51
Medium: Watercolor, gouache (bodycolor) and black chalk on gray paper
Dimensions: Sheet: 12 3/16 × 9 1/16 in. (31 × 23 cm)
Frame: 15 3/4 × 13 in. (40 × 33 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: Gift of Kenneth Jay Lane, 2014
Object Number: 2014.435.2
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By John Frederick Lewis

In the same medium

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Iskander Bey and His Servant, John Frederick Lewis British, Watercolor and gouache (bodycolor) over graphite — Iskander Bey and His Servant
John Frederick Lewis
Iskandar Bey (Mohamed el Mahdy)
ca. 1848

Arab School, John Frederick Lewis British, Watercolor and gouache (bodycolor) over black chalk on brownish paper — Arab School
John Frederick Lewis
1841–51

Two Camels, John Frederick Lewis British, Watercolor and gouache (bodycolor) over black chalk on brownish paper — Two Camels
John Frederick Lewis
ca. 1843

The Lake of Zug, Joseph Mallord William Turner British, Watercolor and bodycolor (gouache) with reductive techniques over graphite — The Lake of Zug
Joseph Mallord William Turner
1843

The Entombment, Sir Edward Burne-Jones British, Green, blue, brown and touches of reddish bodycolor, heightened with white gouache (bodycolor) on green paper — The Entombment
Sir Edward Burne-Jones
1879

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