William Cornwallis Harris (1807-1848), Muslim Women of Argobba. On long-term loan to The Fitzwilliam Museum from the estate of the late Quentin Keynes.

The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge is currently showing a set of newly discovered watercolours that open up a forgotten vista of Ethiopia.

Ethiopian Encounters: A British Expedition to Ethiopia in the 1840s features works depicting subjects virtually unrecorded in UK collections, executed by artist and explorer Sir William Cornwallis Harris who led a mission to the Court of Shewa in the Highlands of Ethiopia between 1841 and 1843.

Harris was, by profession, an engineer in the Indian Army, but earned early renown for his lively published account of a hunting expedition that he led, with one companion, into the interior of southern Africa in 1836-7.

William Cornwallis Harris (1807-1848), The Presentation at Court. On long-term loan to The Fitzwilliam Museum from the estate of the late Quentin Keynes.

The success of this publication ensured his nomination in 1841 as leader of an expedition mounted by the British Government to establish relations with Sahla Sellasie, King of Shewa (in central and southern Ethiopia).

By the end of that year Harris succeeded in securing a trade agreement between Great Britain and the King of Shewa, and remained there for the whole of the next year, observing, drawing, exploring, hunting and writing.

His three volume account of his lively mission was completed while he was still at Ankober, in January 1843. It was published the following year to great acclaim and Harris was knighted for his achievement.

William Cornwallis Harris (1807-1848), The Chivalry of State at the annual Review. On long-term loan to The Fitzwilliam Museum from the estate of the late Quentin Keynes.

The watercolours in this unique exhibition, lent by the executors of the explorer, film-maker and book collector Quentin Keynes, were for the most part those used for the final publication.

Evidently painted on the spot, they preserve a freshness and spontaneity which are lacking in the published lithographs, and highlight Harris’s sensitivity as a draughtsman.

The watercolours show an extraordinary level of detail, such as the Triumphal entry into Ankober, which of all of Harris’s watercolours, probably best evokes the breath-taking landscape of the plateau of the central highlands, which lay at the heart of the kingdom of Shewa.

William Cornwallis Harris (1807-1848), The Triumphal entry into Ankober. On long-term loan to The Fitzwilliam Museum from the estate of the late Quentin Keynes.

Further watercolours also combine images of extraordinary historical importance, such as the exceptionally rare portrait of Sahla Sellasie and representations of the highly diverse ethnic peoples – the Afar, Oromo, Amhara and Argobba - whom Harris encountered in the course of his mission.

The exhibition coincides with the celebration of the Ethiopian millennium and has the support of the millennium committee of the Ethiopian Embassy. It is accompanied by a wide range of activities and events including talks and body adornment and writing workshops.