Studio: international art (2.1894)

better.,

Sketching Grounds. No. IV.—Egypt

IETTERS FROM ARTISTS TO and everywhere a motley noisy crowd of Arabs,

ARTISTS. — SKETCHING Jews, Italians, Greeks, and Armenians, in all sorts

GROUNDS. NO. IV.—EGYPT, and conditions of dress, some entirely Oriental and

_^BY WILFRID BALL. good in colour, others quite European; here, too,

pushing their way through the crowd are laden

y di-\r H - donkeys and camels, while sellers of drink-water,

Y IfAR ha made u 3 °X sherbet' clink their glasses as they pass, and the

you iave ma e up vendors of cakes and sweetstuff in loud tones a(jVer-

your mind to go to tise their wares_ Many Qf ^ ^ shop_fronts m

Jigypt, a tew words yery paintablej and are often im ed b awnings

about my experiences of coarse brQwn canyas ^

there this year may be which slope about ^ ^

useful. I went too late Hpr„ nnr> t* „ „ . , ,

. , , . and tnere are line Arabesque doorways,

in the season, not leav- much broken about; ho ^ for

■ng London until nearly Thg characteristic Cairene woodwork_Mushara.

the fiddle of Febru- beyah_is nQw comparatiye,y rare . ^ ^ ^

ary three months originally for the projecting windows of the harem,

sooner would have been lar frnm wu;..k ™q ™„i^ u i ,

irom wnicn one could see but not be seen, but

much of it has been pulled down and replaced by

skip the journey by sea sloyenly carpenter>s WQrL w *

to Ismailia and thence by rail through the thrQugh ]abyrinths Qf ^ gtreet ^

flat and dull country, with frequent canals CQme tQ thg gplendid Arabesque mosque Qf

and signs of cultivation, to Cairo. As we neared Hassan> whUe Qn ^ m b ^ Qf .g ^

that city, the Pyramids loomed up very impres- mosque of Mahomet Ali and the Citadel. From

sively in the far distance, giving one more sense of here the ^ ^ wonderful> espedally at sundown .

their size than at close quarters. the city spreads itself out before you, flat-roofed

At Cairo station was a great rush of Cooks men houses b thg foregrQund) ^ innumerable mina_

and hotel touts. I intended to go to Shepherds r£ts and dQmes ^ ificenJ. con_

or the New Hotel, but I found all the known fusion . a hugfi broken.down uct is just QUt.

hostels were quite full, so succumbed to my fate, side ^ ^ then & ^ Qf ^

and was carried off to the Hotel des Voyageurs, a Nilg wkh itg spgcks q{ ^ ^ ^ ^

second-class French house near the Esbekah- on the horiz the ^

good cooking, cheap (10s. per day), but rather Pyramids

dirty. I afterwards went to the Continental. For Jt h ^ ^ tQ find g ^

painters I should advise the Hotel du Nil, as it is sketch jn ^ bu ^ Qf ^ &

not expensive, and is in the Arab quarter, the centre the hdp Qf ^ ^.J ^

of interest. The Metropole close to the New retained durbg my g ^ ^ ^ ^

Hotel, is still cheaper, and fairly good T d;d ^ By-the-way, the donkey-boy

The interesting part of Cairo is the Arab quarter,
to be found by following the
fairly broad straight street
called the Muski. It is most
fascinating: on either hand
you can diverge into delight-
fully dirty bye-lanes and narrow
passages, some almost closed
from the sky by overhanging
houses and projecting windows.
You see mosques with very
picturesque entrances and
minarets, some in a ruinous
condition, and nearly all ne-
glected ; drinking fountains,
generally with schools above ;