CARL HAAG | The Holy Rock, Jerusalem

Private collection, UK (acquired directly from the artist, possibly in 1885); thence by descent
Somerville & Co. Ltd., London
Purchased from the above by the present owner in 2015

Possibly, London, The Goupil Galleries, The Works of Mr. Carl Haag, R.W.S., 1885, no. 6, listed

Watercolour over pencil on wove paper. The artist's sheet has been extended along its edges with 0.5cm wide bands of paper and subsequently laid on a second sheet of paper covered by a fine linen canvas, thus preventing inspection of the reverse. This appears to have been the artist's work, as the painted composition extends to the added edges. The sheet appears to be very lightly time stained. Otherwise the medium is in good condition. Colours are strong and vibrant. This work is ready to hang. Presented glazed, in a gilt framed.
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This and the following two works depict the Muslim shrine of the Dome of the Rock, on the Temple Mount in the old city of Jerusalem. The rock over which the shrine was built is sacred to both Muslims and Jews. The Prophet Muhammad is traditionally believed to have ascended into heaven from the site. In Jewish tradition it is here that Abraham, the progenitor and first patriarch of the Jewish people, is said to have prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. The first of the three works depicts the rock itself; the second, the outer arcade of the Dome; and the third, the cave underneath the rock. Initially completed in 691–92 CE at the order of the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik on the site of the Second Jewish Temple, destroyed during the Roman Siege of Jerusalem in 70 CE, the original dome collapsed in 1015 and was rebuilt in 1022–23. Its octagonal plan and mosaics were modelled on nearby Byzantine churches and palaces, although its outside appearance has been significantly changed in the Ottoman period and again in the modern period.

When Haag painted these views, neither he nor any other non-Muslim had free access to the interior of the Dome or to its precincts. However, as Haag's inscriptions attest, it appears he painted these works in situ. After settling in England Haag enjoyed the patronage of Queen Victoria through whose offices Haag may have received special dispensation to visit these holy sites in 1859.