The Grand Vizier's Tent'
Watercolour
ca. 1800 (made)
ca. 1800 (made)
| Artist/Maker |
`The Grand Vizier's Tent'. Stipple engraving 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
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Title | The Grand Vizier's Tent' (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Stipple engraving, coloured by hand, laid down on paper mount with wash borders |
| Brief description | `The Grand Vizier's Tent'. Stipple engraving 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 |
| Dimensions |
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| Styles | |
| Marks and inscriptions | Numbered No 16 and inscribed on mount See Scott's Life of Napoleon B - Vol 4. Page 98. Text begins: On Sunday, June 22 nd.. 1800 - having obtained permission from Sir Sydney Smith, we went on shore at Jaffa, and, in the afternoon were introduced by our Commander to the Grand Vizier. This Drawing is illustrative of the Interview. [...] The principal participants were the Grand Vizier, Sir Sydney Smith, Lieutenant Boxer, Mr.Spurring and Mr.Spilsbury. |
| 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 print is in F. B. Spilsbury, Picturesque Scenery In The Holy Land And Syria, Delineated During the Campaigns Of 1799 and 1800, 1803, Plate 20, entitled The Grand Vizier's Tent. 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.998:19 |
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| Record created | June 9, 2008 |
| Record URL |
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