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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Gallery Text

Confident and loose brushwork in muted tones indicates an inclined path, with white-walled dwellings on either side and locals gathered outdoors in the silvery light of dusk. One of a large group of observational studies of Cairo that Sargent made during the winter of 1890–91, this scene may represent a street near the Sulayman Pasha al-Khadim Mosque, located in the Cairo Citadel atop Mount Mokattam.

Sargent traveled to Egypt to gather ideas after accepting a commission from architects Charles McKim and Stanford White to decorate the vaulted, third-floor room of the new central Boston Public Library (the murals are now known as the Triumph of Religion).

Stray green traces of pigment and a horizontal impression in the lower third of the painting suggest that the work may have been pressed against another canvas in travel while still wet.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1937.211
People
John Singer Sargent, American (Florence, Italy 1856 - 1925 London, England)
Title
Street Scene - Cairo
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1891
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230670

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
70.5 x 91.4 cm (27 3/4 x 36 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
To the artist's sisters, Violet (Mrs. Francis) Ormond and Emily Sargent, at his death, 1925; gift of Mrs. Ormond to the Fogg Art Museum, 1937.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond
Accession Year
1937
Object Number
1937.211
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Lydia Vagts, "John Singer Sargent: The Preparatory Oil Sketches for His Murals at the Boston Public Library" (thesis (certificate in conservation), Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies, 1993), Unpublished, passim
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, ed., American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press (U.S.) (Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008), p. 306-07, cat. no. 322, reproduced in color, p. 322
  • Richard Ormond and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: Figures and Landscapes, 1883-1899, Yale University Press (U.S.) (New Haven and London, 2010), pp. 232, 354, no. 933, repr. p. 232

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 2410 South Arcade, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/25/2022 - 08/05/2024

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu