Interior of a Moorish House

Artist Sir William Allan (Edinburgh, Scotland, 1782 - 1850)

Date1825-1849

Mediumpencil and watercolour on paper

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 27.8 cm, Width: 20.9 cm
Frame: Height: 55.9 cm, Width: 44.5 cm

AcquisitionPurchased in 1960.

CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG003376

Keywords

About MeWilliam Allan trained alongside David Wilkie in Edinburgh and had travelled extensively in Russia and Poland in his early years. In 1828, Wilkie wrote to him from Spain extolling its delights and six years later Allan followed in Wikie's footsteps. He set out for Spain with letters of introduction from Wilkie to gain access to the Prado.

The evidence of the Moorish past and the Muslim occupation which survived in the architecture proved most attractive to the travelling artists and writers. In 1829, Washington Irving had taken apartments in the Alhambra to write his memoirs of Spain and this drawing of a Moorish interior looking on to a sunlit courtyard may well depict a house within the Alhambra fortress.
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Allan travelled extensively in Europe and Russia. This scene was probably painted during an 1834 tour of Spain and Morocco.