''Street Scene near the El Ghouri Mosque in Cairo'' is a
oil
An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...
and
watercolour
Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
painting by the British
Orientalist artist
John Frederick Lewis
John Frederick Lewis (1804–1876) was an English Orientalist painter. He specialized in Oriental and Mediterranean scenes in detailed watercolour or oils, very often repeating the same composition in a version in each medium. He lived for ...
, produced just before his death. He had left
Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
around 25 years earlier after twelve years there. He based it on a drawing he had made from life between 1841 and 1851 which is now in the
Courtauld Gallery
The Courtauld Gallery () is an art museum in Somerset House, on the Strand in central London. It houses the collection of the Courtauld Institute of Art, a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the his ...
in London. The final work belonged to
Christopher Forbes
Christopher "Kip" Forbes () is vice chairman of the Forbes Publishing company.
He attended St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts, and Princeton University. His brother is Steve Forbes, who has made multiple runs for the U.S. preside ...
and was among works given to the Louvre's American Friends in 2011 by Forbes' family.
It shows both sides of
Al-Mu'izz li-Din Allah Street, the main street of medieval Cairo, between the Zuweila Gate and the El Foutouh Gate, at the intersection of El Azhar Street. On the right are the stairs and the porch to the El Ghouri
madrasa
Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , pl. , ) is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary instruction or higher learning. The word is variously transliterated '' ...
and mosque. To the left is the
cenotaph
A cenotaph is an empty tomb or a monument erected in honour of a person or group of people whose remains are elsewhere. It can also be the initial tomb for a person who has since been reinterred elsewhere. Although the vast majority of cenot ...
of the sultan (whose body was never recovered after the 1516
Battle of Marj Dabiq
The Battle of Marj Dābiq ( ar, مرج دابق, meaning "the meadow of Dābiq"; tr, Mercidabık Muharebesi), a decisive military engagement in Middle Eastern history, was fought on 24 August 1516, near the town of Dabiq, 44 km north of ...
north of Aleppo against the Ottomans) and a
sabil-kuttab – both these buildings were commissioned by Mamluk sultan
Al-Ghuri in 1504-1505 and are collectively known as the
Wékalet Al-Ghuri.
{{Louvre Museum
1870s paintings
Paintings in the Louvre by British artists