From the 18th century, painter-travellers showed particular interest in the depiction of Cypriot landscapes and landmarks, as well as in the painterly rendition of the island’s ancient and medieval monuments, using principally the artistic medium of watercolour. This tendency was reinforced with the arrival of the British on the island in 1878. Watercolours proved ideal for painting from nature. Landscape artists could easily carry their materials. Furthermore, the diluted colours dried immediately and so were amenable to subsequent layers. Driven by the excitement of discovering new, different, even – to their eyes – ‘exotic’ places, they portrayed their subject matter with a romantic slant, accentuating its picturesque quality or, in some cases, focusing their interest on precise description, primarily of archaeological sites.

The light plays a leading role in the watercolour View of Kyrenia Port. Using light, the painter drew the lines of the horizon and the distant mountains, while at the same time showing to advantage the transparency of the water and the Cypriot atmosphere as a whole, which is marked by a temperate climate.