Signed with monogram and dated in gold l.r.: JES/1901

Watercolour over traces of pencil, 12.5 by 9 cm (4 ¾ by 3 ½ ins) (frame size 31 by 27 cm)

Provenance: the Piccadilly Gallery, London

The subject is from a scene from the story of Aladdin from the Tales of the Arabian Nights. Despite the theme involving the trickery of a magician in which he exchanges his new lamps with Aladdin’s magical old lamp, it has been suggested that the title deliberately chimes with the dawn of the twentieth century. The final tempera painting is full of personal significance for Southall, depicting many of the artist’s Birmingham Quaker associates (to the background - somewhat in the manner of a Venetian sacra conversazione) as well as fellow artists. This and the following work are a study for the female figure to the centre left of the final picture