Granada
The Alhambra, the vast palace complex built by the Nasrid sultans in late medieval Granada, captivated the imagination of travellers like no other building in Andalucía. While scholarly interest in the monument began to emerge in the eighteenth century, it was propelled to fame by Washington Irving’s The Alhambra. A Series of Tales and Sketches of the Moors and Spaniards (1832). Irving conjured up a vision of oriental mystery and splendour in the past and portrayed modern Spaniards as descendants of the medieval Arabs in terms of appearance and character. Irving had lived in the Alhambra in 1828, despite the building being in a state of utter neglect.
Following Irving’s example, Richard and Harriet Ford took up residence in the Alhambra during the summers of 1831 and 1833, gaining an intimate knowledge of the building and surroundings. John Frederick Lewis visited Granada twice, first in 1832 and in the summer of 1833 with the Fords. David Roberts arrived in Granada in February 1833, staying for three weeks. A year later, the architects Owen Jones and Jules Goury arrived, after a study tour of ancient architecture in Greece and the Middle East. Jones returned in 1837. This fascination with Nasrid Granada led to a proliferation of imagery of the palace, which, as Ford noted, created an exaggerated notion of the Alhambra, which had been ‘fancy-formed as a fabric of the Genii. Few airy castles of illusion will stand the prosaic test of reality, and nowhere less than Spain’. In 1854, Jones made the Alhambra tangible for British audiences, by creating a partial reconstruction in Sydenham, London.
Granada, Plaza del Campillo
Louis Haghe, 1838.
Barry Ife Collection.
Plate 27 from George Vivian, Spanish Scenery. London: P & D Colnaghi, 1838
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The Alhambra from the Albaycin
James Duffield Harding, 1835.
Barry Ife Collection.
Plate 1, Frontispiece, from Lewis's sketches and drawings of the Alhambra, made during a residence in Granada, in the years 1833-4. London: Hodgson Boys & Graves, 1835. Date: 1835
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Court of the Lions, Alhambra
Samuel Porter , 1815.
Private collection.
Plate 33, from Arabian Antiquities of Spain,London, 1815, vol. 1
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Granada, Alhambra, Patio de los Leones
Harriet Ford, 1831.
Ford Family Collection.
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Casa de Frascito Sanchez
John Frederick Lewis, 1834.
Barry Ife Collection.
Plate 6 from Lewis's sketches and drawings of the Alhambra, made during a residence in Granada, in the years 1833-4. London: Hodgson Boys & Graves. [1835]
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The Tower of Comares Fortress of the Alhambra
David Roberts, 1837.
Barry Ife Collection.
Plate 10 from David Roberts, Picturesque Sketches in Spain taken during the years 1832 & 1833. London: Hodgson & Graves, 1837
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Window in the Alcove. Hall of the Two Sisters
Owen Jones, 1837.
Private collection.
Plate 10 from David Roberts, Picturesque Sketches in Spain taken during the years 1832 & 1833. London: Hodgson & Graves, 1837
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Chapel of Ferdinand and Isabella, with the Tombs of Philip I and his Queen, and of Ferdinand and Isabella, Granada
Thomas Allom, 1837.
Barry Ife Collection.
Plate 16 from David Roberts, Picturesque Sketches in Spain taken during the years 1832 & 1833. London: Hodgson & Graves, 1837.
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