When Holland arrived in Portugal in the summer of 1837, he was probably the first British landscape artist to visit the country. His Portuguese views are rare and are considered his greatest works. The publisher William Harrison sent James Holland there to produce watercolours for a forthcoming edition of his popular Landscape Annual series, the artist’s most important commission to date. He left London in May 1837 and took a boat direct to Lisbon where he arrived in the first week of June. He spent the next month in Lisbon and Sintra before travelling north to Oporto in early July.

The present watercolour, dated 26^th June, depicts the Graça Convent in Lisbon. One of the oldest convents in Lisbon, it is located on the highest hill overlooking the city and the river Tagus. Founded in 1271, it was rebuilt in the sixteenth century and restored after the 1755 earthquake.

On his return to London, Holland chose eighteen watercolours to be engraved for The Tourist in Portugal which was published with text by William Harrison in 1839. The original watercolours from this trip show the artist at his most confident, with bold washes laid over vigorous outlines in pencil or pen. Hugh Stokes rated his Portuguese works very highly: `Indeed these lovely examples…. must be classed with the best work of the period, and, for freedom of draughtsmanship and purity of colour, cannot be surpassed by any of Holland’s contemporaries’.

Exhibited: Sotheby’s, London, Watercolours from Winchester College, 1988, no. 45

Provenance: Gift of Harry Collison, 1940