Street in Jerusalem, by William J. Webb(e) (1830-1912[?]). Street in Jerusalem, 1863. Oil on canvas. 30 x 24 inches (76 x 61 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy of Sotheby's. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
There has been controversy in the past as to whether this is the work that Webb(e) exhibited at the British Institution in 1863 entitled Street in Jerusalem, no. 457, or the painting A Shop in Jerusalem that he exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1864, no. 383. It was also unclear as to how, or if, it related to a larger later painting entitled A Street in Jerusalem that Webb exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1867, no. 563. (Sotheby's, 2015). Fortunately a review by F.G. Stephens in The Athenaeum in 1864 describing A Shop in Jerusalem puts an end to this controversy: "A much better picture, by the same, is styled A Shop in Jerusalem (383); there is good colour and solid painting in the background. We are tired of that complacent tradesman who smokes for ever in pictures of this class, and bored by the Arab who, in his brown, striped dress, stands with his shoulder towards us, alarmed with regard to the apparition of a bodiless camel's head and neck at the side of this work" (684). It is thus obvious from this review that Street in Jerusalem must be the work exhibited at the British Institution the year previously and that it was not an earlier idea for the work exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1867.
Street in Jerusalem shows a male figure standing with his back turned at a shop in Old Jerusalem. He is wearing what appears to be the same costume as the shepherd in Webb(e)'s A Shepherd of Jerusalem of that same year. His large dromedary camel is in the right foreground as are several Arab men and boys and a donkey. To the left is a child with a sheep and two dogs lounging in the left foreground. Quaint buildings, including an arched passageway, fill in the background.
This work was not extensively reviewed when it was shown at the Royal Academy in 1864. A critic for The Saturday Review praised its colour when comparing it to Webb(e)'s The Lost Sheep: "although the colour has not the force and glow which we find in his Shop at Jerusalem (383); where the picturesque details of the Eastern bazaar (almost too familiar, perhaps, to the spectators of the present day), are well set forth" (624).
Bibliography
British & Irish Art. London: Sotheby's (November 19, 2013): lot 15.
The Orientalist Sale. London: Sotheby's (21 April 2015): lot 33.
"The Royal Academy of 1864." The Saturday Review XVI (21 May 1864): 624-25.
Stephens, Frederic George. "Fine Arts. The Royal Academy." The Athenaeum No. 1907 (14 May 1864): 682-84.
Created 1 June 2025