The Unwelcome Companion: A Street Scene in Cairo

Most people know John William Waterhouse for dreamy scenes out of myth and legend, the Lady of Shalott drifting to her death, mermaids and enchantresses. This is him at the very start, around 23, well before any of that. It is a street in Cairo. A young woman moves through the crowd while a man presses too close at her back, the unwelcome companion of the title. Waterhouse was working in the Orientalist fashion of the day, painting an East he assembled from studio props and imagination as much as from travel. For years the picture lost its name and hung under the label Spanish Tambourine Girl, until someone found the original title written on the back. He used the same model and dress again soon after in a painting he called Dancing Girl.