A Do'ruck and Chool'leh Merchant, Cairo. 1889. Watercolour, heightened with white, on paper, 153/4 x 22 inches (40.0 x 560 cm). Private collection.
Wallis made the first of his many trips to Egypt in the winter of 1885 and started to show Orientalist pictures more frequently after this time. He exhibited this particular watercolour at the Old Water-Colour Society in 1889, no. 101. He had now begun to paint such subjects from life in their actual locations rather than as how he imagined them. Doraks and Kullehs were types of earthenware water pots used in 19th century Egypt. Wallis was to become a collector and an expert on antique Middle Eastern ceramics.
F. G. Stephens wrote enthusiastically of this watercolour of a seller of pots and pans in his review in The Athenaeum praising its beauty:
Mr. Wallis contributes but one picture (an Eastern subject, such as he so often has chosen of late), and it is of very exceptional beauty indeed. It is called A Do'ruck and Chool'leh Merchant, Cairo (101). The figure is very well drawn much better, indeed, than some of Mr. Wallis's. The distinguishing qualities of the work are its softened brilliance, the strength of colour, and the depth and clearness of the shadows. The visitor should notice the large space of deep shadow cast upon the wall by a projecting balcony near the top of the picture, as well as the lustre of the glowing space into which it falls, with edges sharply, but not harshly defined. This is a beautiful piece of painting, and it could not be purer in colour, softer, or more harmonious. [574]
The critic for The Times praised its obvious quality as well: “Among the figure subjects one of the most brilliant is the Oriental scene of Mr. Henry Wallis (101), if, indeed, this can be properly classed with figure subjects, so elaborate are the surroundings, with such supreme care are they painted. Mr. Wallis has made a veritable collection of all forms of water-bottles that are to be found in modern Egypt, and a singularly picturesque setting do they make to his two merchants sitting in their shop under the brilliant Egyptian sun. A drawing like this is full of what painters call quality, which is quite different from pedantic imitation of details” (8).
Bibliography
Lessens, Ronald and Dennis T. Lanigan. Henry Wallis. From Pre-Raphaelite Painter to Collector/Connoisseur. Woodbridge: ACC Art Books, 2019, cat. 194, 171-72.
Stephens, Frederic George. “The Society of Painters in Water Colours.“ The Athenaeum No. 3210 (May 4, 1889): 574-75.
“The Society of Painters in Water Colours.“ The Times (April 30, 1889): 8.
Last modified 165 October 2022