Interior of the Mosque of Sultan Hassan, Cairo
Date Added
21/07/2019
Content Type
Art And Craft
Category
Paintings
Link to Content
Subject Area
Interior Design
Description
Date Created: 1880
Physical Dimensions: 75.5 x 116.5 cm image (sheet larger as wrapped around a
wooden board); 107.5 x 148.5 x 7.5 cm frame
Provenance: Source unknown, Purchased by the AGNSW in London in 1883
Type: Watercolour
Rights: Purchased 1883
Medium: watercolour and bodycolour with scraping out over pencil
underdrawing
Signature & Date: Signed and dated l.l., "E. A. Goodall./ 1880.".
Object Other Titles: Interior of mosque of Sultan Hassan, Cairo; Mosque of Sultan
Hassan, Cairo
Artist Country: England
Edward Angelo Goodall was in many ways a stereotypically
intrepid Victorian artist, journeying from England to British
Guiana as official artist and also painting in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
In this painting he takes us inside the open courtyard, or sahn, of the great
14th-century Mosque of Sultan Hassan in Cairo, Egypt. The courtyard
features a domed ablutions fountain surrounded by iwans (recessed spaces for
prayer and instruction) with oil lamps hanging from their arches. Goodall’s
depiction of the building, which by the 19th century had fallen into
semi-decay, was described by one critic as ‘an immense interior peopled with
worshippers, full of dust and heat, with sun rays striking through the lofty
openings in the walls’.
Files
Type of Work:
Artist: Edward Angelo Goodall