David Roberts R.A. 1796-1864

John Gordon of Cluny;
by descent to R.A.C. Linzee Gordon of Cluny

London, Spink and Son Ltd, English Watercolour Drawings, Spring Exhibition, 1971, no 87;
London, Albany Gallery, Autumn Exhibition of English Watercolour Drawings, 1971, no. 36

Roberts left London for Alexandria in August 1838, where he began his eleven month tour around Egypt and the Holy Land. He returned from the Near East with over 272 sketches of Egyptian temples, Islamic mosques, and the ruins and landscapes of the Holy Land, which he described as 'one of the richest folios that ever left the east,' (see David Roberts, Eastern Journal, 1839 the manuscript of which is in the National Library of Scotland).

Roberts was in Egypt from September 1838 until Febuary 1839 before travelling onto Palestine and the Lebanon. On his return to London in July, 1839, he produced a series of finished watercolours including this work, based on his sketches. They were later published as lithographs by Francis Graham Moon for the Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia, London, 1842-1849. No publication before this had attempted to depict so comprehensive a series of views of the Near East, and the work containing large coloured lithographs was well received, numbering several editions.

This watercolour depicts the Roman temple of the God Khnum at Esna, built during the 2nd century BC which Roberts visited on two occasions in October and November 1838. Here, the success of the watercolour derives from the combination of the dramatic composition. Roberts' power of observation is made clear in the delicate pencil tracery on the temple's columns as well as his inclusion of the hieroglyphic inscriptions.

We would like to thank Briony Llewellyn for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.