View on the Nile

This work relates to Leighton’s 1868 voyage up the Nile from Cairo to Aswan. The distinctive landscape of the Nile Delta made a strong impression on Leighton and he described it in the following glowing terms: ‘the sky was bright, but tempered by a glimmering haze which produced the loveliest effects… the key note of this landscape is a soft, variant, fawn-coloured brown… At this time of year the broad coffee-coloured sweep of the river is bordered on either side by a fillet of green of the most extraordinary vivacity.’ This sketch View on the Nile reflects many of these colours and effects: the thin band of verdant green caught between the soft browns of the distant mountains and the river bed.

c.1868

Oil on canvas

19.0 x 27.0cm

LH0385

Image and text © The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London, 2020