Tristram Ellis was a professional artist who came to Cyprus in 1878 and stayed for a few months with the aim of portraying the new British acquisition for the British public. He published a book titled Twelve Etchings of the Principal Views and Places of Interest in Cyprus (1879). While on the island, he executed more than eighty watercolours of Cyprus which he then exhibited at the Belgian Gallery in London. The watercolour is of a pilgrim site in the district of Paphos called the enkleistra where St Neophytos led the austerity of the ascetic life to his death. A stone bridge leads to the cave in the rocks that was carved out by the saint himself. The presence of a priest in long black robes and of country folk who ascend to the cave reverently points to the sacredness of the site.
🎨 PNT-00196 > Tristram Ellis (1844-1922), St. Neophytos Monastery, Watercolour, 28x21 cm, 1878.
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