Bellapais

English, as on the record

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. Ellis was fascinated as much with the monuments and the landscape as with the people of Cyprus. In his book of etchings, he includes romantic views such as this, with Gothic monuments hanging from cliff tops. The Bellapais Abbey or White Abbey or Abbee De la Paix is perhaps one of the most popular depictions by foreign artists. It appears not only in his book of etchings but also as an individual etching.

Inscription, as transcribed by CVAR

Inscribed in pencil: Del. et A. P. Cyprus 1879