Details

Object type

watercolour

Title

Sunday on the Red Sea

Artist/Maker

William Simpson maker

Place Associated

Egypt, Red Sea (place depicted)

Date

1872

Materials

pencil, pen and watercolour, paper

Dimensions

unframed: 220 mm x 285 mm

Description

Watercolour depiction of eleven well-dressed people sitting around a table, probably aboard the "Poonah". Elaborately carved furniture and patterned rugs decorate the room. Most are reading. A figure on the far left is holding something up. He does not wear shoes. Grey wash. Mounted on card. Signed and dated (Aug 1872). In 1872, William Simpson left for a long trip to Egypt, China, Japan & USA. The sketches he made were engraved for the Illustrated London News. At this time, he came to an agreement with the ILN that his sketches would be returned to him after they had been engraved. As well as being exhibited in the Burlington Gallery in London in 1874, some were also reproduced using the Heliotype process in a book called Meeting the Sun: A Journey all Round the World, published in the same year. This image can be compared with MLSC.128383.1 & MLSC.128383.2 depicting people, including enslaved people, working on the same ship."

ID Number

MLSC.128383.3

Location

In storage