George John Cayley Confraternity of Italian Fisherman, Cathedral, Algiers

Algeria 1874–5: Watercolours by George John Cayley

This painting is one of an interesting collection of works that we have for sale by George John Cayley (1826–1878) depicting 19th-century Algeria. The works provide a snapshot of the country through British eyes: a world of large colonial villas, sprawling estates of cactus and palm, of cobalt seas and vermillion sunsets. They are a record of the country at the height of French colonisation, a period of over 130 years, which has had a lasting impact on Algerian identity.

The son of Yorkshire MP Edward Stillingfleet Cayley, George was warm-hearted and whimsical, a wayward philosopher. He was a man of contradictions, described as 'part Bohemian, part conventional', unable to completely renegue on his aristocratic roots but left-wing in his politics and outward-looking in his approach to life: 'He had seen many places, known many people in many lands…. He was a man of the world, citizen of the world.'

Relocating with his young family to Algeria in 1870 on account of ill-health, Cayley moved in the circles of the ruling colonial elite—he depicts views at Villa Joly, residence of Swiss consul Eugène Joly, and his children perform amateur dramatics at the home of Sir Robert Lambert Playfair, Consul-General in Algeria. But he also attempted to assimilate into Algerian society in an individualistic way, often eccentrically adopting local Arab dress. A trained barrister, he did not pursue a career or money, he had very little, and 'with what he had he was open-handed'.

Cayley was a talented metal-worker, a craft he continued in Algeria. In 1862 he and the painter George Frederick Watts RA worked together to design the challenge shield for a shooting championship at Wimbledon. A silver dish by Cayley is in the V&A (no. M.377-1911). He was also a talented artist, illustrating a number of his own books, and was acquainted with Sir John Millais, who painted a portrait of his elder son.

A keen tennis player, George Cayley played in the outer court of his home at Algiers and was involved in developing designs for tennis rackets. An early proponent of Lawn Tennis, he wrote an article on the subject for the Edinburgh Review in 1875.