In 1820 John Frederick Lewis entered Thomas Lawrence's (1769–1830) studio as a draughtsman of animals, where he studied from life and dissected cadavers with fellow pupil, Edwin Landseer (1802–1873) (Bénézit, 2006, p. 956).
By 1827 Lewis had turned to watercolours, landscape painting, topographical views and genre subjects. Owing to the influence of Richard Parkes Bonnington (1802–1828) and David Wilkie (1785–1841), Lewis began to travel: from 1832 to 1834 he undertook a tour of Spain and Morocco, where he painted a series of watercolours that earned him the nickname 'Spanish Lewis' (Bénézit, 2006, p. 956). Further trips to Paris and Italy followed, and he lived in Rome for two years (Lemaire, 2000, p. 342). In 1840, a long journey took him to Greece, Constantinople and the Middle East. From 1841 he lived in Cairo for ten years and from there he crossed the Sinai. During his journey in Egypt, he adopted aspects of local dress and manner and created numerous portraits, and genre scenes (Lemaire, 2000, p. 342).
Lewis exhibited at the Society Painters in Watercolours, of which he was made president in 1855. He was a member of the Royal Academy of Arts (Bénézit, 2006, p. 956).

Bénézit, E. (ed.) (2006). Lewis, John Frederick Lewis, John Frederick. In Dictionary of artists (Vol. 8, p. 956). Paris: Gründ.

Lemaire, G.-G. (2000). Orientalismus. Das Bild des Morgenlandes in der Malerei. Cologne: Könemann, pp. 341-342.

Tromans, N. (ed.) (2008). The lure of the East: British Orientalist painting. London: Tate Publishing.

Weeks, E. M. (2013). Oil and Water: (Re)Discovering John Frederick Lewis (1804–76). In: Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide, *12*(2), pp. 162-173. URL: http://www.19thc-artworldwide.org/index.php/autumn13/new-discoveries-re-discovering-john-frederick-lewis-1804-76

Weeks, E. M. (2014). Cultures Crossed: John Frederick Lewis and the Art of Orientalism. London: Yale University Press.