"The Hhareem" by J.F. Lewis (c.1850)

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This painting is most commonly entitled "The Hhareem" (with that unusual spelling) but the title "The Harem of a Mameluke Bey, Cairo: The Introduction of an Abyssinian Slave" was used when it was exhibited in the Royal Scottish Academy exhibition of 1853.

It was painted during Lewis's ten years of residence in Cairo, before his return to Britain in 1851, and shows the upper floors of his large house in the city. Lewis reworked this scene in 1869 to produce his "An Intercepted Correspondence", with the newly acquired slave replaced by an errant harem girl. Curiously, both Lewis and the harem's owner had aged a couple of decades between the two pictures...

I've written a weblog about this pair of paintings.

Last modified 5 May 06, 3:15 AM by Tanos