David Roberts, R.A.

Probably Reverend James White (1803–1862), Bonchurch, Isle of Wight;

Thence by inheritance to his wife, Rosa White, Bonchurch, Isle of Wight;

Thence by descent to their daughter, Clara Margaret Jean Gordon, née White (c. 1843–1864), Bonchurch, Isle of Wight;

Thence by descent.

Birmingham, Dundee, Edinburgh, London and Paisley, The Scottish Arts Council Touring Exhibition, Artist Adventurer David Roberts 1796–1864, 1981–82, no. 5;

London, Barbican Art Gallery, David Roberts, 1986–87, no. 87.

According to the inscription in the lower right of this sheet, Roberts completed this drawing on 15 January 1833, only a few days after he had arrived in Córdoba from Madrid.¹ Whereas the Spanish capital had been cold, he was delighted to find that spring was already well on its way in Andalusia and – in the same letter where he described the meteoric conditions – he explained how the city was ‘to the Antequary [sic] and the Artist rich beyond Measure’.²

Roberts was particularly enraptured by the great mosque-cathedral, with its exceptional architecture and grand scale. The present drawing depicts the Villaviciosa Chapel whose polychromatic columns have stood under the pierced vaulted ceiling since the reign of Al-Hakam II (961–976). In 1838 Roberts executed an oil painting of this subject from the same viewpoint as the present drawing but with a different configuration of figures (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid).³

The first owner of this drawing is thought to have been Robert's friend the Rev. James White (1804-1862). For further information White, please see lot 193.

We are grateful to Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz for her help when cataloguing this lot.

¹ K. Sim, David Roberts, RA, A Biography, London 1984, p. 70.

² Sim, 1984, p. 71. 

³ Inv. no. P006160.