Henry Roderick Newman 1843-1917

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Description

Henry Roderick Newman
Kom Ombo
signed Henry R. Newman, titled Kom Ombo, dated 1895, and numbered o/is 840, l.l.
watercolor on paper with small overlay
26 by 17 in. (66 by 43.2 cm)

Provenance

Sale: Tepper Galleries, New York, July 1973, lot 380
James B. Manning, New York (acquired at the above sale)
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Exhibited

New York, The Jordan-Volpe Gallery, A Quiet Devotion: The Life and Work of Henry Roderick Newman, April-June 1996, p. 101, illustrated in color pl. 37

Literature

Kent Ahrens, "Pioneer Abroad, Henry R. Newman (1843-1917): Watercolorist and Friend of Ruskin," The American Art Journal, November 1976, p. 95, illustrated

Catalogue Note

This image of Kom Ombo in Egypt is unique in three ways. As Kom Ombo was hit by a disastrous flood, it is the only known record of the site portraying the pigments as they were before the flood. It is also the only known work by Newman to have an insert added (the figures in the foreground) which was likely a request made on behalf of the purchaser to indicate scale. Furthermore, this is the only known work in a typical Egyptian mashrabiyya frame.

The frame is important since it provides documentation of Newman's role among the expatriate communities. Extant letters detail Newman's aesthetic advice among the British and American elite wintering in Egypt and according to Dr. Lorelai Corcoran, Director of the Institute of Egyptian Art and Archeology, The University of Memphis, as well as other scholars, this frame was certainly made in Egypt and most likely designed by Newman himself to compliment the piece.