David Roberts, R.A.

M.G. Radstone;

his sale, London, Sotheby's, 4 April 1968, lot 84,

from where acquired by Ronald John Rickett (d. 1970),

by family descent to the present owners

Lithographed:

the preliminary version of the watercolour lithographed in Egypt and Nubia from Drawings made on the spot…, London 1846-9, vol. I, pl. 26

This drawing was executed by Roberts on the spot, during his eleven-month tour to the Near East, in 1838-39. Travelling up the Nile from Cairo, Roberts arrived at Aswan on 29 October and visited Philae the next day. He noted in his diary that the temple was ‘a paradise in the midst of desolation. Its ruins even at a distance are more picturesque than any I have seen.’¹ He returned to Philae on 17 November and spent several more days drawing there.

Roberts arrived back in Britain in July 1839, armed with a folio of 272 drawings, the product of his travels. He was to use this sheet as the bases for a watercolour which was later lithographed for his publication: The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia, an iconic body of work that caused a sensation in Victorian Britain.²

We are grateful to Briony Llewellyn for her help in cataloguing this work.

1. K. Sim, David Roberts R.A. 1796-1864, A Biography, London 1984, p. 134

2. For the lithographer's watercolour see: sale, London, Sotheby's, 19 November 1981, lot 158