View of Alhambra

View of Alhambra by Laurits Tuxen, dated 1902, records his visit to the medieval Nasrid palace-fortress above Granada in southern Spain. The Alhambra was among the great pilgrimage destinations of nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century European artists and tourists, celebrated for its intricate Islamic architecture, its gardens, and the quality of Andalusian light. Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra had fuelled Romantic fascination with the site for decades, and Tuxen's painting participates in a long tradition of artistic responses to this singular monument. The work is currently without recorded institutional location.

Tuxen renders the Alhambra's architecture and its surrounding landscape with plein-air directness, using warm southern light to dissolve the building's ornamental detail into a luminous mass. The handling is freer than in his formal portraits, responding to the particular challenge of capturing the palace's interplay of architecture, garden, and Andalusian sky.