John Frederick Lewis (1804-76)
My House in Cairo
About 1843
Watercolour
Museum no. 717-1877

John Frederick Lewis was a British artist who lived in Cairo for many years. In depicting his house, Lewis emphasised its imperfections and decaying grandeur. Wild instead showed the architecture 'as new', reflecting his desire to record and understand its Islamic construction. Wild designed stained glass windows for the South Kensington Museum's Oriental Courts, almost identical to the ones shown here.

James Wild and Owen Jones were collaborators and good friends, later becoming brothers-in-law. Encouraged by Jones, Wild spent a number of years in Cairo and made careful studies of private houses and mosques. The Arabian chapter of Jones's 'The Grammar of Ornament' was entirely based on James Wild's Cairo sketchbooks, which are now held in the V&A's collections. Domestic Islamic architecture was a subject that had received little attention before. Wild was respected for his knowledge of Arabian architecture and became the resident expert at the South Kensington Museum.