Plaza de San Francisco, Seville 

Plaza de San Francisco, Seville  

John Frederick Lewis, 1833 

Tinted lithograph 

Lewis’s travels in Spain were prompted by the need to find novel subjects to exhibit at home in London. While in Seville in the spring of 1832, he enjoyed the hospitality of Richard and Harriet Ford, and also visited the Alhambra with them the following year.  

In this lithograph, Lewis depicts the grand square of San Francisco in the centre of Seville, with the emblematic Giralda (the belltower of Seville Cathedral) in the background. The watercolour sketch on which this print is based shows the square almost empty. In contrast, the print features picturesque details, including a sprawling market stall in the foreground, and a man with a string of mules in the middle ground. Such motifs are typical of Lewis’s images of Spain. As a genre painter, aware of prevailing tastes in Britain, he was particularly interested in picturing Spanish traditional life and ‘types’ such as brave bullfighters, flirtatious dancers, dangerous bandits, beautiful women in mantillas, or grave monks.  

After returning to London, Lewis exhibited his watercolour drawings at the Society of Painters in Water Colours, where they were well received by art critics and found ready buyers. Lewis augmented his success by transforming a selection of his Spanish drawings into lithographs, which he published in two albums with the London firm F. G. Moon. The print shown here was published in his second album, Lewis’s Sketches of Spain and Spanish Character, in 1836. The album is dedicated to David Wilkie, the Scottish genre and history painter, who had travelled in Spain in 1827 and 1828 and inspired both Lewis and David Roberts to visit the country.   

Title: Plaza de San Francisco, Seville.  

Author/Artist: John Frederick Lewis (1804-1876). 

Technique and Material: Tinted lithograph, paper. 

Size: 260 x 365 mm (image), 550 x 370 mm (page).  

Published: Plate 4 from J F Lewis, Sketches of Spain and Spanish character made during his tour in that country in the years 1833-4. London: F G Moon and John F Lewis, [1836]. 

Date: 1833. 

Marks and Inscriptions: on the plate, bottom left: ‘Plaza de San Francisco, Seville’; right: ‘J.F. Lewis / 1833’.