A Street in Jerusalem, by William J. Webb(e). 1867. Oil on canvas. 36 1/4 x 66 1/8 inches (92.1 x 168 cm). Private collection. Image courtesy of Bonhams. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Webb(e) exhibited this painting, one of his largest works, at the Royal Academy in 1867, no. 563. He had previously exhibited another painting entitled Street in Jerusalem at the British Institution in 1863. The two paintings feature roughly the same location in Old Jerusalem but the view is spread out much further horizontally in the later painting. Webb(e) has also added many more figures, including the man riding the dromedary and leading a camel train to the right of centre, and the elderly man mounted on his horse in conversation with a seated Arab on the left. Webb(e) has included more animals and birds in the larger picture as well. This is a work of Orientalist genre painting reminiscent of paintings by the leading British Orientalist painter of the day, John Frederick Lewis, such as his The Courtyard of the Coptic Patriarch's House in Cairo that Lewis exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1864, a study for which is in the Tate Britain (accession no. N01688). Webb(e) clearly would have been familiar with his work.
When the painting came up for auction at Bonhams in 2009 the joint influences of the Pre-Raphaelites and J. F. Lewis were noted:
The use of strong colours and added attention to detail in this painting certainly demonstrates the artist's debt to the Pre-Raphaelite movement. Furthermore, in style and particularly subject matter, one is instantly reminded of the work of another great British Orientalist, John Frederick Lewis (1805-1876). There is an immense amount of activity within the painting: people trading, the passing camel train, various characters going about their daily lives, and the different animals subdued by the day's heat. Webb has skilfully captured a moment using light and shadow, which drapes across the buildings and pours into the street below. He would have witnessed many such scenes on his travels and this painting most likely began with a sketch completed on the spot, then worked into an oil back at his studio in London. [56]
Closer view of the central group.
When the work sold at Christie's in 2006 John Christian noted that a contemporary critic had compared this painting to a painting by William Gale in the same Royal Academy exhibition of 1867:
Tom Taylor, writing in the Times compared it to Hosanna, an account of Christ's entry into Jerusalem by William Gale (1823-1909) that appeared in the same exhibition. This picture, Taylor wrote, "is treated in the most realistic spirit ... but the composition seems to us too crowded for the canvas, and there is an abuse of bright colour." However, he admitted, "it may be that the critic in this cold, grey north is not competent to pass judgement on eastern colour ... for Mr. Webb's clever and careful Street in Jerusalem is very like Mr. Gale's Hosanna. In fact, Webb and Gale were almost certainly friends. They supported the same exhibition societies, and both had felt the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites in the 1850s. Gale seems to have visited the Isle of Wight while Webb was living there, and they were subsequently neighbours in Langham Chambers, Portland Place…. Most significant in the present context, Gale paid the first of two visits to the Holy Land in 1862, the very year that found Webb in Jerusalem. It would not be in the least surprising to discover that they either met at this time or were even travelling companions. In other words, their pictures at the Academy of 1867 may not only have been comparable in theme and treatment but actually products of a shared experience. [70]
Contemporary Reviews of the Painting
When the painting was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1867 it was not extensively reviewed. A critic of The Art Journal didn't like this as a work of art despite the effort expended on it: "W. J. Webb's Street in Jerusalem (563), may be a street, but is not a picture. The artist has been at infinite pains" (143). A reviewer for the Illustrated London News felt the colouring was too hot: "A Street in Jerusalem (563), by Mr. Webb – apparently 'studied on the spot,' but certainly too positive and feverish in colour" (519).
Bibliography
Christian, John. 19th Century European Art Including Orientalist & Spanish Art. London: Christie's (14 June 2006): lot 44, 68-71.
"Fine Arts. Royal Academy Exhibition." The Illustrated London News L (15 May 1867): 519.
"The Royal Academy." The Art Journal New Series VI (1 June 1867): 137-146.
Taylor, Tom. "The Royal Academy." The Times (24 May 1867): 5.
Created 1 June 2025