Prints of the Alhambra

Prints of the Alhambra

The famous Alhambra in Spanish Grenada enchants people to this day with its exotic history and marvelous architecture. Already in the 19th century, the Alhambra encouraged swarms of tourists and the dreams of those who wished they could travel. One man who significantly encouraged this yearning for the Alhambra was the British painter John Frederick, who can be considered a true 19th century globetrotter and can be ascribed to the Orientalist movement. With his album Sketches and Drawings of the Alhambra, published in 1833 and consisting of numerous lithographs of his paintings, he created a bestseller. Six sheets of this exotic visual world offer an inside view of the Alhambra from a 19th century perspective.

A British Globetrotter

John Frederick Lewis (1805–1876) is known as an important British painter and artist of the 19th century. His works are stored today in the Tate and other important British collections. Lewis undertook numerous additional journeys and extended stays abroad. The artist spent ten years in Egypt, inter alia. However, he also found artistic inspiration for his artistic creativity in Italy, Spain, and other parts of the world. With his pictures of the exotic and foreign worlds that he encountered on his travels, Lewis was close to the Orientalist movement.

The Sketches of the Alhambra

The 19th century shaped the romantic image of many corners of the Earth. The enthusiasm for exotic and foreign worlds finds particular expression in Romanticism, and here in Orientalism in particular. These tendencies simultaneously fostered the beginning of tourism and British interest in Spain awoke in the 1830’s. John Frederick Lewis undertook a Spanish sojourn in the years 1832-4. He prepared his impressions of this trip in paintings, which in turn served as a templates for his lithography portfolio with the original title of Sketches and Drawings of the Alhambra, made during a Residence in Granada, in the Years 1833-4. Drawn on Stone by J.D. Harding, R.J. Lane, A.R.A, W. Gauci & John F. Lewis.

The Alhambra in Artful Lithographs

Six sheets from this portfolio give an inside look into the effect that this work had in Great Britain. The Alhambra with the Moorish architecture of the fortress in the hills above Grenada, the exuberant, artful Mozarabic ornamentation is still impressive today and sets the mood of this place: the lithographs show both interior views as well as depictions of the city on the rocks. An impressive gate or interior courtyards with idyllic water fountains adorn another page. The scenes are each furnished with detailed and tender decorative figures, respectively. The album gives a living image of the Alhambra in the 19th century. The charm of this location, which continues to attract countless tourists to Grenada today, is made clear in these magnificent works of art!