Near Cairo

• Watercolor and pencil
• Signed, titled, and dated

Near Cairo is one of several watercolors Louis Comfort Tiffany painted during his 1908 trip to Egypt. He made sketches from the deck of his yacht as he traveled up the Nile River. By this point in his painting career, he tended to capture the fleeting images of his travels rather than detailing them precisely.

He had first visited North Africa and Egypt in 1870. During that trip, he was drawn to the brilliant light and color of the region, which had a lasting impact on his career. Like other Orientalist painters, he was inspired by the cultures of the Near East. He also incorporated the rich ornamentation of Islamic art and architecture into his later interiors and stained glass designs.

In this watercolor, he evokes the desert with a palette of mostly golds and browns. Accents of white across the canvas enliven the painting. The blue sky is muted by clouds and the distant scene appears hazy and dusty. He does not use the vibrant hues typical of American Orientalist paintings. Instead, he focuses on capturing the atmospheric effects of light.

This work likely hung in the gallery of his Cold Spring Harbor estate Laurelton Hall. Tiffany displayed many of his later paintings in his homes.