Oil painting, 'A Caravan in the Desert', Attributed to Henry Warren

Painting depicting a camel caravan in the Egyptian desert.

Purchased with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, Shell International and the Friends of the V&A

Purchased with the assistance of The Art Fund, the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Shell International and the Friends of the V&A, 1985

Reproduced in Col. M. H. Grant, A Chronological History of the Old English Landscape Painters (in Oil) ..., Leigh-on-Sea, 1947, Vol.3, Pl.55 & p.29. This appears to be a copy (with variations including the addition of the Pyramids) of the frontispiece in L. de Laborde, Voyage de la Syrie, 1837 (see SP.341), colour lithograph by W. H. Freeman after P. Marilhat, titled Une Caravane Dans Le Desert. It is therefore unlikely to have been executed before 1837, and certainly not before 1833, the date of Marilhat's return to France from Egypt. Marilhat's oil painting of the subject was not exhibited at the Salon until 1844 (see D.Menu, 1972, no.449). However, by 1837, Warren was painting predominantly in watercolours. He was living at 10 Robert Street in 1833, but had moved by 1839 (see Graves). All this suggests that both the date and the attribution may be spurious.

SD.1187