Richard Burton in Oriental Costume (An Arab Shaykh in his Travelling Dress). Thomas Seddon (1821-1856). Watercolour on paper. 11 x 8 inches (28.2 x 20 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy of the author.
Seddon arrived in Cairo on 8 December 1853. In his memoirs he writes on 12 December: "After wondering about the fair with Fletcher, we met a Mr. Burton, who, knowing the Arabic language thoroughly, has taken the dress" (30). Richard Burton was one of only a few Europeans who had succeeded in making the pilgrimage to Mecca from which he had just returned. Seddon, in a letter to his fiancée Emmeline Bulford of 30 December 1853, writes about what he has recently painted: "... and a portrait of Lieutenant Burton in full Arab costume, with a camel, for an account he is going to publish of his travels in Arabia, and his journey to Mecca" (32-33). Seddon's portrait is said to exist in both an oil and a watercolour version. The so-called "oil version" may, in fact, be a misidentification and this painting is more likely to be An Arab Sheikh, and Tents in the Egyptian Desert. The watercolour version was with the Fine Art Society in 1978.
Seddon has chosen to portray Burton as an Arab sheikh, standing dressed in a traditional costume of a dark grey robe over a white tunic, and holding a spear in his right hand. Around his head and draped onto his shoulders he wears a traditional headdress called a keffiyeh. In his left hand he clutches what appears to be the hilt of a sword while additional weapons, including a pistol and a dagger, are tucked into his belt. Regardless in this watercolour Burton seems well prepared to meet any dangers that might come his way, which was just as well as Burton went on to live a very adventurous life indeed.
The watercolour of Burton's portrait was among the pictures shown at the semi-public exhibition of his Orientalist works held at Seddon's studio at No. 14 Berners Street in 1855. William Michael Rossetti in The Spectator described some of the works that were included: "The last three are figure-subjects, - an Arab and Dromedary at the city of the dead, Cairo; an Arab Sheikh; and a Sheikh with camel lying down." (392). Burton's portrait must be the last of these three described.
An Arab Shaykh in his Travelling Dress. Lithographic portrait of Richard Burton after Thomas Seddon by C. F. Kell. Image courtesy of the author.
Seddon's portrait was later used as the basis for a lithograph by C. F. Kell entitled An Arab Shaykh in his Travelling Dress that is more much colourful than the watercolour. It was reproduced in Burton's account of his journey Personal Narrative of a Pilgrimage to El Medinah and Mecca, Volume I, opposite page 235, that was first published in 1855. At this time Burton was a virtually unknown infantry officer in the Bombay Army before he became famous as a writer, explorer, orientalist scholar, and diplomat.
The best portrait of Burton of course is the magnificent one by Frederic Leighton now in the National Portrait Gallery in London. Leighton began it in April 1872 but did not complete it until 1875. Leighton and Burton had been friends since they first met on holiday while they were both taking a cure at Vichy in France in August 1869.
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Bibliography
Eastern Encounters. London: The Fine Art Society, 1978, cat. 57.
Riding, Christine. "Travellers and Sitters: The Orientalist Portrait." The Lure of the East: British Orientalist Painting 1830–1925. Ed. Nicholas Tromans. New Haven: The Yale Center for British Art, 2008. 48-75.
Rossetti, William Michael. "Fine Arts. Oriental Pictures by Mr. Seddon." The Spectator XXVIII (14 April 1855): 392.
Seddon, John Pollard. Memoir and Letters of the Late Thomas Seddon, Artist. London: John Nisbet, 1858.
Staley, Allen. The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973. 98.
Thornton, Lynne. The Orientalists: Painter-Travellers (1828-1908) . Art Creation Realisation, 1983. 164.
Created 27 March 2024