DAVID ROBERTS
British, 1796–1864

The Alcazar from the Mole, Málaga

Inscribed The Alcazar from the/ Mole  Malaga
Pencil and watercolor heightened with white on paper
9¼ x 13¼ inches (23.3 x 33.7 cm)
Framed: 19 x 22 inches (48.3 x 56 cm)

This sketch was drawn in early 1833 during the artist’s Spanish trip. Roberts made his first stop of the trip in Burgos in December 1832, followed by Madrid, Córdoba, and Granada. "Málaga, in the heart of the Costa del Sol, was Roberts’s next stop,” writes John Olbrantz, “and it took him two days to get there from Granada. In Málaga he stayed with William Mark (1782-1849), the British consul there, who was an officer in the Royal Navy and had been secretary to Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805). When Mark discovered that Roberts was an artist, he graciously offered to show him around town and ‘to point out the objects most worthy [of] my attention. He and his family have shown every kindness and attention — driving me about in their carriage to see the most beautiful of the scenery, and receiving me at their house with the greatest hospitality’.” [John Olbrantz, David Roberts: Artist and Traveler, Salem, Oregon, 2022, pp. 33-34].

David Roberts produced a related lithograph, in collaboration with William Gauci, titled Citadel and Port of Malaga, published in Picturesque Sketches of Spain in 1837.

Provenance
The Palser Gallery (G. Douglas Thomson), Stratford-upon-Avon
Private Collection, New England

$16,000

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