William James Muller 1812-1845

During the three months Muller spent in the valley of Xanthus and despite bad weather he worked constantly and completed all his watercolours on the spot.  His technique became much broader and he favoured an increasingly subtle and expressive use of colour.  He also virtually abandoned the use of bodycolour, for the white lead oxidised in the damp and turned black.

Muller was delighted with what he saw in Xanthus and wrote: 'I would say a word or two...on the ruins and antiquities of this place: they principally consist, then, of tombs - either in the rock or standing as they have existed for centuries past - shaken by earthquake, or pillaged by man.  Their forms are most classical, and when covered with sculpture...little inferior to the finest and purest Greek period of art.' (W.J.Muller, 'Letter from Xanthus', Art-Union, February 1844, p.42;  quoted by Francis Greeacre & Sheena Stoddard,  W.J.Muller 1812-1845, 1991, p.148)