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Country of Origin: Isfahan
Persia
JBOC Comments:
Auction Catalogue Description:
THE LEVERHULME COLLECTION AT
THORNTON MANOR, WIRRAL, MERSEYSIDE
SALE L01703 LOT 395
SESSION 3 | 27 Jun 01 10:00 AM.
London, New Bond Street
William Holman Hunt., O.M., R.W.S., A.R.S.A
(1827-1910)
20,000—30,000 GBP
Lot Sold. Hammer Price with Buyer's Premium:
23,500 GBP
DESCRIPTION
William Holman Hunt., O.M., R.W.S., A.R.S.A
(1827-1910)
the mosque of assakreh, Jerusalem - the dome of
the rock
signed l.r.: whh 1869
watercolour, heightened with bodycolour
9N by 13Nin., 25 by 35cm.
Provenance:
Bought from the artist by Wilhelm Auguste Rudolf
Lehmann,London (1819-1905);
his brother Augustus Frederick Lehmann 15
Berkeley Square, London (1826-1891);
sold by his executors, Christie's, 19th March
1892, lot 777, bt.by Gross for 24 gns.;
William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme in 1897
Exhibited:
Exhibition of the Society of Painters in Water
Colours. The Sixty-Seventh, 1871, no.204
Literature:
Athenaeum, no.2272, 13 May 1871, p.598;
Art Journal, 1 June 1871, p.155
This exquisite watercolour has not been seen in
public for over a century. It was executed on
Holman Hunt's second visit to Jerusalem in 1869.
The artist's fascination with the archaeology of
the Holy Land was a reflection of his deeply-felt
Christian beliefs. This watercolour was, for him,
far more than a topographical record, as he made
clear in a letter of 10 March 1873 to its London
purchaser, the portrait painter Rudolf Lehmann:
'Whether the Mosque covers the site of the
ancient Holy of Holies as some think, or the
sepulchre of Christ.....it is perhaps the most
interesting spot on the whole earth' (MS. John
Rylands Library of the University of Manchester).
On his first visit to Jerusalem, 1854-6, Hunt had
rented a house inside the city gates. In his
diary writing of 7th April 1855 he wrote about
his visit to the Dome of the Rock, and professed
himself 'fairly overwhelmed with the solemn
beauty' of the interior. 'All is sombre, so that
at first one can scarcely make out the design - a
circle of graceful pillars supporting the dome
and an octagonal space without. The inner circle
is shut in with a screen and is entered by
ascending two or three steps: here one is shown
the extensive surface of the natural rock where
Abraham offered Isaac on which the Temple was
erected' (M.S.John Rylands).
The impact of this 1855 visit can hardly be
over-estimated. In his memoirs Hunt wrote: 'From
the day that Abraham met Melchisedek, this spot
has been the theatre of events which have struck
deepest roots in the life of humanity. It has
been the sanctuary where God's word has been
proclaimed to Jew, Christian,and Moslem....there
was not an unsightly nor a shocking object in the
whole area, it was guarded, fearingly and
lovingly, and it seemed a temple so purified from
pollution of perversity that involuntarily the
text, 'ÕHere I will take my rest for ever'' rang
in my ears.'Õ
On this visit, Hunt would not have been allowed
to make any sketches of the interior. But in
1859, owing to intervention by Queen Victoria,
Carl Haag was officially admitted to the site -
his watercolour entitled The Cave beneath the
Holy Rock, Mosque of Omar, Jerusalem was shown at
the Old Water Colour Society in 1860. Closer to
Hunt's watercolour is the engraving after
Frederick Catherwood's 1833 view of the outer
ambulatory, which was published in 1847 as the
frontispiece to James Fergusson's An Essay on the
Topography of Jerusalem. Hunt's picture was
exhibited at the Old Society of Painters in Water
Colours in April 1871 with the title Interior of
the Mosque Ar Sakara, or Mosque of Omar. The Dome
of the Rock was often called the Mosque of 'Umar
by Europeans because it was thought that the
caliph 'Umar, following his acceptance of the
surrender of Jerusalem in 638, went to the site
of the holy Rock, ordered the cleansing of the
site and built the first mosque on or near the
Rock itself. Hunt included the following
explanatory note in the catalogue:'The rock is
within the innermost colonnade, and hidden by the
screen connecting the columns. The door
approached by the Dervish leads to the cave
below'. This describes the right-hand side of the
picture, which depicts part of the circular inner
arcade of the inner ambulatory encircling the
Rock,with three of its 12 columns and its arches
characterized by alternating black and white
voussoirs. Hunt's view is taken from the
south-east of the outer ambulatory. In the
foreground loom two of the 16 columns of red and
green marble or porphyry supporting the outer
octagonal arcade. Between them, in the centre of
the image can be seen, above a third column, two
arches decorated with sparkling polychromatic
mosaics.
Interior of the Mosque Ar Sakara, or Mosque of
Omar was Hunt's first eastern subject to be
exhibited at the Old Water Colour Society, and
its ethnographic focus conforms to the manifesto
he drew up in Jerusalem and sent to William
Michael Rossetti on 12 August 1855: 'I have a
notion that painters should go out, two by two,
like merchants of nature, and bring home precious
merchandize in faithful pictures of scenes
interesting from historical consideration, or
from the strangeness of the subject itself.' In
this respect the watercolour can be compared with
Hunt's late oil painting The Miracle of Sacred
Fire in the Church of the Sepulchre, Jerusalem
(Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass). But while
Hunt was positively hostile towards the Christian
site, he considered the Dome of the Rock, 'for
the mystery of its history, for its architectural
features too and its uncontaminated state, as the
most precious building in the whole world'.
In the 1871 exhibition, Hunt also showed The
Pathless Waters (private collection, England) a
sketch of the sea and moonlight executed on his
voyage from Brindisi to Jaffa in August 1869.
Both warercolours were bought by Rudolf Lehmann,
to whom Hunt wrote on 10 March 1873: 'Thank you
for your kind note which encloses the cheque of
£204/15....You are more than prompt in paying me
before the works are sent home: this however
shall be very soon.' Hunt knew Rudolf Lehmann and
his brother Frederick, a partner in an
engineering firm and a noted amateur violinist as
well as a patron of Albert Moore, through a
social network that included Millais, Leighton
and the novelist William Wilkie Collins.
The 1st Viscount Leverhulme amassed an important
group of works by Holman Hunt. His first purchase
was this watercolour but it was not until April
1919 when Hunt's widow offered Leverhulme the
magnificent May Morning on Magdalen Tower, which
had been retained by the artist for his own
collection, at the price of 5000 guineas.
Leverhulme declined, but subsequently purchased
the picture when it appeared at Christie's on 18
July 1919 through Gooden & Fox for 1900
guineas. The most important of all Lord
Leverhulme's paintings by Hunt was of course the
prime version of The Scapegoat, which had first
been exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1856. This
was bought from the Quileter collection on the 22
June 1923 for 4600 guineas. Both The Scapegoat
and May Morning on Magdalen Tower are now in the
Lady Lever Art Gallery.
The 2nd Lord Leverhulme also acquired works by
Holman Hunt such as A Tuscan Girl Plaiting Straw
from the Austen sale at Christie's on 10th July
1931. This was one of his earliest independent
purchases and clearly shows the influence of his
father's taste.
We are very grateful to Dr Judith Bronkurst for
her assistance in cataloguing this lot. The
watercolour will be included in her forthcoming
catalogue raisonne of the works of William Holman
Hunt.
Seen on www.Sothebys.com
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