Cisterns at Carthage, Near Tunis

Rundle employed loose, rapid brushwork to convey texture and light. The stone walls are suggested through layered washes, with darker crevices and luminous edges creating a sense of depth without heavy outlining. The sunlight piercing the far arch is rendered with minimal pigment, allowing the paper’s white to suggest brightness. This restrained approach prioritizes mood over detail, aligning with the tradition of topographical watercolours used by military officers to document foreign landscapes.

The watercolour remained in the artist’s family after his death, eventually passing to Sir Ronald Windgate. It was offered for sale by Marshall Spink and Beach’s of Salisbury in July 1973, where it fetched £25. Its journey from naval sketch to private collection reflects the shifting status of such works—from functional records to objects of historical interest. No public institution acquired it immediately after the sale, and its current location is not publicly documented.

Rundle’s work emerged during a period when British naval officers frequently documented sites across the Mediterranean, often as part of broader imperial and scientific curiosity. Carthage, long a symbol of ancient civilization, attracted attention for its ruins and infrastructure. These watercolours served as personal records, distinct from formal surveys, offering intimate glimpses of places rarely illustrated in detail by professional artists of the time.

Though not widely exhibited or reproduced, Rundle’s watercolour contributes to a lesser-known body of 19th-century British maritime art that valued observation over grandeur. It stands as an example of how non-professional artists contributed to the visual record of antiquities in North Africa. Its quiet realism and sensitivity to light offer a counterpoint to more dramatic Orientalist works of the era, preserving a subdued, authentic encounter with the past.