Lavery first travelled to Fez in 1906–7, riding from Tangier with his friends Walter Harris and R.B. Cunninghame Graham, narrowly avoiding capture by bandits along the way. This painting comes from his second visit, in April 1920, during what would be his final stay in Morocco — a trip that began in Tangier that winter, tinged with loss: his old friend William Kennedy, who'd been renting his house through the war, had died, and several of the expatriate friends he'd known before the war were gone or scattered.
In March 1920, Lavery set off from Rabat with his wife Hazel, stepdaughter Alice, and a family friend, travelling by car through Marrakech before reaching Fez on 10 April. Founded in 791 by Idris I and still encircled by nine miles of ancient walls, the city stopped him in his tracks on the approach from the hills — this canvas-board is the result of that roadside pause. Lavery travelled with a custom leather-strapped case built to hold five wet canvas-boards without smearing; his pupil Winston Churchill had an identical one made by the same craftsman.
The view looks past the old walled medina toward the sharp peaks of the Middle Atlas — white Andalusian-style architecture in the foreground giving way to the red fortress towns of the south, the ancient trading city that once linked Fez to the gold caravans of Timbuktu.
Sizes & Format
40 × 50 cm / 16 × 20″
Available framed (black, white, wood) or unframed
Print & Frame Details
Archival matte paper, 250gsm (110lb), acid-free and FSC-certified — off-white, uncoated. Framed prints: solid oak or ash wood frame, 20mm thick, with shatterproof protective glazing. Ready to hang, hanging kit included. Unframed prints ship flat.
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