David Roberts R.A. 1796-1864

Purchased from P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London, 1950

Roberts arrived in Seville from Xerez in late April 1833.  He wrote to his artist friend in Edinburgh, David Ramsay Hay, on 4th May: 'Suffice it to say...it exceeds my expectations.  It is surrounded with walls - (Moorish).  Flanked with towers of every period in excellent preservation...contains one hundred and sixty Moorish churches independent of convents.  The cathedral partly Moorish, partly Gothic and partly bastard Roman, is one of the Most Magnificent Structures of the kind in the world.  The Moorish Tower in particular is worth a journey from London to see, but I must not say too much or you will be expecting more than a painter can carry away with him...indeed here alone is work for any artist for a year or two'  (National Library of Scotland).  He remained in Seville until October when an outbreak of cholera forced him to return to England.