Object Details
From:NHerts
Name/TitleMosque, Cordoba
About this objectMosque, Cordoba, by Henrietta M. Pilkington.
This watercolour was painted during one of the artist’s trips around Europe and the Middle East with her travelling and life companion Margaret Thomas in 1896.
Henrietta Pilkington (1845-1927) and Margaret Thomas (1842-1929) met in London in the 1870s. The two women became very close, travelling together throughout the 1890s before settling down in a house in Norton in 1911 where they lived until their deaths.
Their bond is memorialised on their shared headstone, where they are buried together. Beneath Henrietta Pilkington’s name it reads ‘The sweetest soul that ever looked with human eyes. Friends for sixty years.’
The Mosque-Cathedral of Córdoba is a Roman Catholic cathedral in the Spanish city of Córdoba. Originally constructed as a mosque of the Umayyad Emirate in 785 and expanded over the following three centuries until the collapse of the Caliphate in Córdoba in the early 11th century.
During the Reconquista, Córdoba was conquered by King Ferdinand III of Castile and the mosque was converted into a Catholic cathedral dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
It was during the period that Henrietta Pilkington and Margaret Thomas visited Córdoba that restoration works were being undertaken to restore the original Islamic features and mosaics illustrated in this piece.
MakerHenrietta M Pilkington
Maker RoleArtist
Date Made1875 - 1900
Period19th Century (1801-1900)
Medium and MaterialsWatercolour on paper
Place MadeCordoba, Spain
Inscription and MarksText on the reverse reads 'Mosque. Cordoba H.M. Pilkington'
Measurements253 mm 175 mm (HxWxDxDiam)
Named CollectionLetchworth Museum
Credit LineThe estate of Margaret Thomas
Object TypePainting
Object number1930.5477.15
Copyright LicenceAll rights reserved