In the 1800s, painters travelled east and set up their easels wherever the light and life stopped them. They painted elephants draped in gold-thread caparisons, courtiers waiting at carved palace gateways and the rose-coloured stones and street vendors pouring hot sahleb beneath latticed windows, and old doorways worn smooth by centuries of hands.

Oil suits these scenes like nothing else. Colour builds up in slow layers, sunlight seems to sit on the stone, and every jewel, tile and fold of cloth takes on a depth you can almost touch.

Our Oil Paintings Collection recreates these classic oriental scenes on canvas, from the forts of India to the streets of Cairo, alongside works of our own.