John Frederick Lewis, R.A.

Sudbury, Gainsborough's House, A Peculiarly English Art, English Drawings and Watercolours, 1994, no. 38

Lewis arrived in Madrid by 16 July 1832. From there he proceeded to Granada, before travelling on to Seville, where he spent the winter of 1832-33 as the guest of Richard Ford, later well-known for his Handbook for Travellers in Spain (London 1845). The present drawing probably dates to this period. According to Richard Ford, the sitter was the maid of his wife, Harriet. The same model is seen in several other drawings. One was with Agnew’s in 1981 and was the version lithographed as A Girl of Seville, pl.13 from Lewis's Sketches of Spain & Spanish Character made during his Tour in that Country, in the Years 1833-34 (London 1836). Another, showing her three-quarter length standing in an interior, is in a Private Collection. The following spring Lewis travelled south to Gibraltar and crossed to Tangiers before returning to Granada. He then returned to Madrid before travelling back to England via Paris in the winter.

We are grateful to Briony Llewellyn for her help when cataloguing this lot.