Possibly James Holland OWS Jerónimos Monastery, Lisbon, Portugal

An original 1830s watercolour painting, Possibly James Holland OWS, Jerónimos Monastery, Lisbon, Portugal.

This is a beautiful little sketch in watercolour, showing the Jerónimos Monastery from the River Tagus at Lisbon in Portugal around the 1830s. The monastery is one of the most prominent examples of the late Portuguese Gothic Manueline style of architecture in Lisbon. The architectural detail is exquisitely rendered and the foreground captures the bustling array of life in the city at this time—boatmen, soldiers, clergy and figures on horseback or driving an oxen-drawn cart. The boat life too is prominent, so important on the Tagus to the transportation of merchandise, people and fish between the two banks of the river, between the river mouth and Riba-Tejo, and between the coast and the interior.

The soldiers may be either British or Portuguese personnel: the 19th century saw a close alliance between Portugal and the United Kingdom. In 1807, when Napoleon's army attacked Lisbon, the Portuguese royal family fled to Brazil under the protection of the British Royal Navy. During the ensuing Peninsular War, the British army, under Arthur Wellesley (the future Duke of Wellington), guarded Portugal and campaigned against the French alongside the Portuguese Army. There were significant numbers of British troops in Portugal at this time and the Tagus River was the centre of Britain's Atlantic strategic control throughout the Napoleonic Wars.

On thin card.