Harvard Art Museums > 1937.211: Street Scene - Cairo Paintings Collections Search Exit Deep Zoom Mode Zoom Out Zoom In Reset Zoom Full Screen Add to Collection Order Image Copy Link Copy Citation Citation"Street Scene - Cairo (John Singer Sargent) , 1937.211,” Harvard Art Museums collections online, Apr 23, 2024, https://hvrd.art/o/230670. Reuse via IIIF Toggle Deep Zoom Mode Download This object does not yet have a description. 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 Location Location Level 2, Room 2410, South Arcade View this object's location on our interactive map 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 The Harvard Art Museums encourage the use of images found on this website for personal, noncommercial use, including educational and scholarly purposes. To request a higher resolution file of this image, please submit an online request. 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 - 01/01/2050 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
