Memorial to John Frederick Lewis

Church Plaque: Memorial to John Frederick Lewis

c. 1876

Brass

St. Mary's Church, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey

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The memorial to John Frederick Lewis is a reminder of how popular he was in his age, particularly after the sensation created by his large watercolour A Frank Encampment in the Desert of Mount Sinai, 1842 — the Convent of St Catherine in the Distance. To Ruskin, this was one of the "most wonderful pictures in the world" (qtd. in Lambourne 103). As this memorial shows (and Bendiner confirms) Lewis's correct dates were 1804-1876, not 1805-1876 as so often given. In 1847, while still in Egypt, the artist married Marian Harper (c.1826Ð1906), who came from Hampton in Middlesex, and the couple returned to England in the spring of 1851, settling down after a while at a house called The Holme at Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. This became their permanent home, and it was from here that Lewis became a full Royal Academician in 1864, as proudly noted on the memorial. It is fascinating to think of him still painting his harems, bazaars, desert camps and so on in leafy Surrey, while making occasional forays into London — where he was a member of the Athenaeum (having been sponsored by Sir Charles Barry), and met friends in the art world, including Millais. He suffered a great deal in his last years, and was confined to a wheelchair by the spring of 1876. He died at home in the summer of the same year, but was buried in Frimley (also in Surrey, but near the Hampshire border) where his brother-in-law was the rector.

Sources

Bendiner, Kenneth. "Lewis, John Frederick (1804-1876)." The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Online ed. Viewed 6 February 2008.

Lambourne, Lionel. Victorian Painting. London & New York: Phaidon, 1999.

Last modified 10 February 2008