Name of Object:

Egyptian village scene

Location:

London, United Kingdom

Holding Institution:

Victoria and Albert Museum

 About Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Date of Object:

1869 (painted)

Author:

Henri RI Pilleau (1813-1899)

Inventory Number:

SD.807

Material(s) / Technique(s):

Water- and bodycolour over pencil, heightened with white, on blue/grey paper

Dimensions:

Height: 25.2 cm, Width: 35.3 cm

Description:

Egyptian men and women are seen here in a town or village on the Nile. In the shade of an overhanging tree a market stall displays its wares, including paper lanterns and bread. At the stall behind, sugar cane is for sale. In the background is a mosque with a white minaret, though not distinctive enough to establish the scene's locality. Pilleau had visited Egypt in the winter of 1842-43 with Lieutenant Colonel George Everest (after whom Mount Everest was named) and two other companions, on their way home from India. On his return to England he published a set of twelve coloured lithographs, Sketches in Egypt (1845), which, like the better-known publications of Wilkie, Roberts and Owen Jones in the same decade, fuelled popular interest in Egypt and the Holy Land.

Type of Object

Painting; watercolour

Citation of this web page:

Victoria and Albert Museum "Egyptian village scene" in "Sharing History", Museum With No Frontiers, 2026.
https://sharinghistory.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;AWE;uk;165;en

Prepared by: Victoria and Albert Museum

MWNF Working Number: UK 165