Murillo Painting the Virgin in the Franciscan Convent at Seville

John Frederick Lewis R.A. · 1838

The British artist John Frederick Lewis painted some of the most sophisticated watercolors ever produced. This elaborate example was executed in Paris during the winter of 1838. A well-traveled artist, Lewis had closely studied the paintings of Bartolomé Estebán Murillo (1617–1682) during a visit to Spain in 1832. However, the curious composition of Murillo Painting the Virgin was almost certainly suggested by Horace Vernet’s Raphael at the Vatican, a work that aroused considerable interest at the 1833 Paris Salon and one Lewis surely examined. He may have intended his own painting as a tribute to the Spanish artist, a challenge to the Frenchman Vernet, or a topical response to the excitement caused in Paris in 1838 when the Galerie Espagnole opened in the Louvre. The representation of old masters at work had a long tradition, and the depiction of a Spanish master would have been timely in 1838.