A large signed watercolour-wash artwork prepared for publication in The Graphic, depicting syces clearing Cairo’s celebrated bridge for an approaching carriage, after a photograph by Major J. Fortune Nott.
Bibliographic Details
Artist: Oswaldo Tofani (Italian illustrator, 1849–1915).
Title: An Afternoon Scene on the Kasr-en-Neel [Bridge], Cairo: Syces, or Footrunners, Clearing the Way for Their Master’s Carriage.
Date: 1894.
Medium: Original watercolour and wash illustration on board, with areas of bodycolour.
Signature: Signed “Tofani” at the lower right.
Publication: Prepared for the March 1894 edition of the London illustrated periodical The Graphic.
Source: Painted after a photograph taken by Major J. Fortune Nott.
Presentation: In a window mount with printed title label.
Provenance: Contemporary inscription to the reverse of the board.
Size: Mount approximately 50 × 40 cm; complete illustration board approximately 44 × 34 cm.
Condition
Good only. An old stain affects the lower-right corner of the board and extends slightly into the image area. Exposure lines from an earlier mount are visible around the perimeter of the illustration. There is general age-toning, particularly to the small areas of body colour, which have faded towards sepia. The principal image nevertheless remains striking and clearly defined. Please examine the gallery images carefully or request a more detailed condition report.
Description
A striking and highly atmospheric piece of original Victorian illustration art by the Italian artist Oswaldo Tofani, created for publication in the March 1894 issue of the popular London periodical The Graphic. The scene shows the busy Kasr-en-Nil bridge in Cairo, where running attendants or syces clear a passage through the crowd for their master’s approaching carriage.
Rendered in watercolour, wash and touches of body colour, the large composition captures the movement, costume and urban spectacle that made illustrated travel journalism so appealing to nineteenth-century readers. The work was based upon a photograph by Major J. Fortune Nott, demonstrating the close relationship between photography and hand-drawn press illustration before photographs could be reproduced directly with ease.
The approaching dignitary may be a senior Egyptian official, although the surviving title identifies him only as the attendants’ master. Signed by Tofani and retaining its period title label and contemporary rear inscription, this is an impressive surviving example of published artwork for The Graphic, with particular appeal to collectors of Egypt, Cairo, Orientalist art and illustrated journalism.
Notes
The Kasr-en-Nil Bridge was one of nineteenth-century Cairo’s most prominent thoroughfares, linking the central city with the districts west of the Nile. The Graphic, founded in London in 1869, became renowned for commissioning accomplished artists to transform contemporary events, travel scenes and photographs into dramatic illustrations for a mass readership.