Suez Canal

Location

Country: Egypt
City: Cairo
Place: British Embassy

Watercolourist and painter William Simpson was born in Glasgow, the son of a marine engineer and mechanic. He trained as a lithographer under David Macfarlane and later Allan and Ferguson, and also studied at the Glasgow School of Design. In 1851 he moved to London to work for the lithographers Day & Son. He was sent to cover the Crimean War in 1854, after which he became known as ‘Crimean Simpson’. In 1866 he became an artist for the ‘Illustrated London News’, travelling in India, Russia and Afghanistan, and covering several major military campaigns of the 19th century. In 1874 he became a member of the Institute of Painters in Watercolour. He was also an amateur archaeologist and a prolific writer. Simpson died in London, aged 75.

Places

Egypt, Suez Canal, Middle East

Subjects

shovel/spade, mattock, builder, orientalism, topography, genre, camel, donkey, man, 19th century costume, turban, canal

Materials & Techniques

paper (as artists material), watercolour (as artists materials), watercolour (as object name)

Artist

William Simpson (1823 - 1899)

Title

Suez Canal

Date

February 1869

Medium

Watercolour on paper

Dimensions

height: 22.50 cm, width: 27.50 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the Mathaf Gallery, January 1987

Inscription

dd&insbl

GAC number

16590