John Frederick Lewis, R.A.

Lewis' travels in 1840 to Corfu, Albania, Greece, Smyrna (modern Izmir), and eventually, Constantinople (modern Istanbul), inspired a number of single-figure studies, including a small series of soldiers in national dress.  The present work is a particularly fine example of this type, and one of the few remaining drawings by Lewis from this formative period of travel. 

The subject of a Souliot would have been well known to British contemporaries and European art lovers alike: renowned for their resistance against Ottoman rule and active in the Greek War of Independence beginning in 1821, the Souliotes had been made famous by the exhilarating prose of Lord Byron (1788-1824), and their colorful dress had already been recorded by a number of prominent artist-travellers, including Eugène Delacroix's.

In Lewis' work, however, the dramatic feats and picturesque costumes of these legendary soldiers take on a secondary role; it is the profile of this figure, and his complicated comportment, that has captured the artist's attention. Rifle set across his shoulders and edged weapons tucked securely in his belt, the man takes a half-step forward, weary from his fight.  It is Lewis's emphasis on the psychology of the Souliote, and on the quieter moments of his day, which differentiate this sketch from nearly every other of its kind.

The size of this work is similar to others of the sketches that Lewis made in 1840, suggesting that he drew from a supply of materials that he had in hand. In addition to paper, Lewis may also have carried tubes of  'Chinese' white, introduced by Winsor & Newton in 1834. By mixing this pigment with his watercolours, Lewis could infuse his works with an intensity and opaqueness of hue not typically associated with the medium. The artist John Sell Cotman (1782-1842) was not alone in his envy, upon seeing the result of Lewis's distinctive approach: '. . . I saw above three hundred most splendid drawings by Lewis. Words cannot convey . . . their splendour. My poor Reds, Blues and Yellows . . . are faded fades to what I saw there,' (letter from J.S. Cotman to Dawson Turner, 6 January 1834).