Arthur Melville ARSA RSW ARS (British, 1855-1904)


The Soko, Tangiers signed, titled and dated 'Arthur Melville/Tangiers/94' (lower left)watercolour 59.5 x 85 cm. (23 7/16 x 33 7/16 in.)
|Provenance(Probably) Mrs Arthur Melville(Probably) The artist's estate sale; Dowell's, Edinburgh, March 1922, lot 130 (as Soko, Tangiers)(Probably) where purchased by Dr A HH Sinclair, EdinburghThence by descentExhibited(Probably) London, Royal Institute of Painters in Water-Colours, 1906, cat.no.97(Probably) Nottingham Art Gallery, Arthur Melville Memorial Exhibition, 1907, cat.no.87(Probably) London, Whitechapel, 1908, cat.no.130 (loaned by Mrs Arthur Melville)LiteratureAE Mackay, Arthur Melville, Leigh-on-Sea, 1951, p.144After his direct involvement in the opening of the new Grafton Gallery in London in February 1893, Melville headed to Spain and Tangiers. These trips always served to re-energise him, tapping into the formative experiences of his time spent in Egypt and Persia in the early 1880s, and Tangiers in particular was cheap, accessible and popular with friends such as Crawhall, Lavery and Alexander. The present picture reflects works such as Camel Market, Aden from that earlier period, and displays his mastery of crowd scenes.