This exceptional watercolour was made in Istanbul in 1840 by John Frederick Lewis. Showing the interior of the great mosque of Hagia Sophia, Lewis captures the complex architecture of the sixth-century church with its fifteenth-century Ottoman additions, populated by contemporary figures at prayer. Exquisitely delineated in graphite on grey paper, Lewis captures the glittering, jewel-like interior in rich watercolour, preserved in outstanding condition, this beguiling work is one of Lewis’s acknowledged masterpieces.

John Frederick Lewis was part of a generation of painters who travelled East in search of new and exotic material. On his arrival in Constantinople, in late 1840, Lewis met David Wilkie who wrote home to the painter William Collins: ‘we have encountered John Lewis from Greece and Smyrna. He is making a number of drawings. I said I was sure he would turn up on our route… he has been making most clever drawings as usual.’ The clever drawings seem to have been focused on the architecture of the great mosques. Lewis made a series of studies of the Grand Mosque at Bursa, including views of the Mausoleum of Sultan Mehmet, but most numerous are the detailed views of the interior of Hagia Sophia. Working on distinctive grey paper Lewis produced at least seven studies of the interior of the great domed mosque, evidently beguiled by the combination of early Christian basilica and delicate Ottomon decoration.

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