#m65
1821
Watercolour ca. 18 x 23 cm (7 x 9 in.) on beige artist's wove paper with blind stamp "Bristol Paper" in lower right corner. Watercolour with remains of the green paper mounting sheet, but overall in very good condition.
Attractive well-executed watercolour with slightly altered African costumed figures taken from two plates (Tuaricks of Ghraat Plate p.113 & Negresses of the Soudan Plate p.182) of Lyon's "A Narrative of Travels in Northern Africa, in the years 1818, 19, and 20, accompanied by geographical notices of Soudan, and of the course of the Niger. With a chart of the routes, and a variety of coloured plates, illustrative of the costumes of the several natives of Northern Africa:" London 1821. "Lyon was commissioned to accompany Joseph Ritchie on an expedition to reach the Niger by way of North Africa.., [they] were received by the Bashaw of Tripoli, Yusuf Karamanli, who informed them that they would be able to join the caravan of the Bey of Fezzan, Mohammed el Mukni, who was leaving on a slave-trading expedition to the south. Thirty-nine days out of Tripoli the Caravan halted at Murzuk, but within two weeks of their arrival Lyon had gone down with dysentery.., and Ritchie was feverish and delirious.., [and later died at Murzuk]"(Howgego 1800-1850).
