Moroccan Tannery

Morocco
1986

During my stay in Morocco I visited the ancient capital of Fes. I had never seen anything like the Tannery, whose smell was as famous as the Indonesian fruit Durian, whose perfume is so strong it is illegal to carry it on an aeroplane. The Tannery was at least as strong as that even though it was out of doors. I was inspired enough to paint it out in the open over four hours two days running, in a temperature just in the high nineties, and as can be seen in this photo there was no shade. At the end of four hours on each occasion I was just conscious enough to stagger down thirty steps to the underground spring beneath me, where I revived myself by pouring blissfully freezing cold water all over me.