painting
Artwork
Accession Number
999.013bDescription
A watercolor painting of a middle-eastern or north African street scene, the foreground a group of buff-coloured square-shaped masonry and plaster buildings, two mosques in the background, one with a dome, and both with minarets, a robed man in the centre with two seated firgures to his right, the sky of vivid blue, the artist's signature "CYRIL HARDY" at lower left, the verso a board 21" 1/4 X 15" with a printed scene of a bridge over a waterway above the printed text, "Whatmans's watercolour sketching board, rough surface stock sizes in inches, Made in England, Windsor & Newton, Ltd.".Narrative
This fine picture of a middle-eastern or north African mosque was purchased by The Castle Society for placement near or inside Craigdarroch’s smoking room. During the Victorian period, wealthy Europeans and North Americans often had smoking rooms in their homes. These rooms were almost always designed along Islamic themes. Joan’s daughter, Mary Jean Croft, had a Moorish-themed smoking room at her Esquimalt home, Mt. Adelaide.The artist, Cyril Hardy, often painted pictures like this one while visiting Algeria.
