Oil painting, 'An Old Wall and Buildings, Algiers', Arthur Ditchfield, 1872

Bequeathed by the artist

Bequeathed by the artist, 1888

Historical significance: The painter and printmaker Arthur Ditchfield (1842-1888) studied at Leigh's School of Art in London and later at the Royal Academy Schools. He exhibited between 1864 and 1886 at the Royal Academy, the British Institution, the Society of British Artists, the New Watercolour Society, the Royal Institute and elsewhere. He specialised in topographical views, making etchings of English towns, and travelling to France, Spain, Italy, Egypt and North Africa. An Old Wall and Buildings, Algiers was painted during a tour of Spain, Algeria and Cairo which Ditchfield made in 1872-74. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy (no.438) in 1874.

Spain had been little visited by artists until both David Roberts and John Frederick Lewis, attracted by the remains of Moorish architecture and the wild landscape, made extensive tours of the country in the 1830s and 40s. The publication in 1845 of Richard Ford's Handbook for Travellers in Spain further encouraged visits to the country (and to North Africa, to which it was a short voyage), and made topographical views of these areas very popular.

This is one of a group of six topographical paintings, made during the same trip, which Ditchfield bequeathed to the museum on his death in 1888.

1812-1888