Joseph's Well
Watercolour
ca. 1800 (painted)
ca. 1800 (painted)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
A watercolour scene from Syria or Jersualem.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Joseph's Well (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Ink and watercolour over pencil, laid down on paper mount with wash borders |
| Brief description | `Joseph's Well'. Watercolour in an album entitled `Picturesque Scenery in the Holy Land and Syria delineated during the Campaigns of 1799 & 1800', about 1800. Francis B.[? Brockhill] Spilsbury |
| Physical description | A watercolour scene from Syria or Jersualem. |
| Dimensions |
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| Styles | |
| Marks and inscriptions | Numbered N.o. 11. Extract from the text: The Origin of this Well is vulgarly attributed to Joseph, the Servant of Potiphar - The Turks display great reverence for all the remains of the Patriarchs, & therefore, they have erected a mosque over it - [...] In October 1799, the period when this Sketch was taken it was very offensive, owing to some dead Bodies which the advanced Post of the French Armies had thrown into it - |
| Credit line | Purchased with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, Shell International and the Friends of the V&A |
| Object history | According to Rodney Searight: - `Bt fr Albany Gallery, Jan. 1968, £250'. [the Album] |
| Historical context | This watercolour was reproduced in F. B. Spilsbury, Picturesque Scenery In The Holy Land And Syria, Delineated During the Campaigns Of 1799 and 1800, 1803, Plate 13, entitled Joseph's Pit and Well. See Abbey (381) for description of the volume published 1803; plate numbers given follow the numbering in that copy. See also SP.564 for a second edition (1819). The lettering on each plate states that they are after drawings by Daniel Orme from Spilsbury's on-the-spot sketches. SD.998:1-19 are clearly not Spilsbury's first-hand sketches, but may be the drawings he prepared for the engravers, with the addition of three hand-coloured etchings/engraving. While they (including the etchings/engraving, if he was indeed the author of The Art of Etching and Aquatinting) may represent a further stage executed by Spilsbury himself, it is just possible that they comprise the set drawn by Daniel Orme for publication. Orme (c.1766-after 1832) was a portrait painter in oils and miniature and an engraver. He studied at the RA Schools and worked in London, exhibiting at the RA 1797?1801, until 1814. He was probably the brother of Edward and William Orme, also artists and engravers. (See DNB and Hardie, III, p.44.) In 1799 Napoleon laid siege to Acre but in May was repulsed by the Turks with the aid of the British fleet commanded by Sir William Sidney Smith. Afterwards Spilsbury participated in various reconnoitering trips made by British officers into Syria and Palestine: see text of Picturesque Scenery .... |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Places depicted | |
| Bibliographic reference | Searight, Rodney. The Middle East : watercolours and drawings by British and foreign artists and travellers, 1750-1900, from the collection of Rodney Searight, Esq. London, 1971 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | SD.998:12 |
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| Record created | June 8, 2008 |
| Record URL |
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