David Roberts, R.A.

Sale, London, Christie's, 22 November 1963, lot 8, bt. Agnew's;
with Agnew's, London;
by whom sold in 1963 to Philip Hofer (1898-1984), who loaned the work to The Houghton Library, Harvard until 1983;
thense by descent to the present owner

Engraved:

lithographed by Louis Haghe (1806-1885) for The Holy Land, 1843,  vol. II, pl. 85 

Roberts painted this watercolour during his eleven month journey through Egypt, Sinai and Palestine. Having travelled from Cairo through the desert, he had reached Jerusalem by the 28^th March 1839. Being Easter, the Holy City was awash with pilgrims, but despite the crowds, Roberts was able to create several important drawings. While there he was fortunate to have been introduced to the city’s governor: Ahmet Aga. Explaining his desire to see Bethlehem, Aga was only too delighted to help and he instantly provided Roberts with a guide.

Roberts left Jerusalem with a small party during the first few days in April. He crossed the River Jordan, bathed in the Dead Sea and sketched at The Monastery of Saint Saba. Finding the monastery’s situation particularly beautiful, he remained there for two days, before riding on through the wildness to Bethleham. In his diary, Roberts described the approach, writing that: ‘cultivation began to appear….[the] immediate neighbourhood abounds with fields of corn, olive and fig trees covering the sides of the hills…. The Convent of the Nativity crowns the height on which the town is situated and attached to it are the Latin, Greek and Armenian Convents.’¹ After an uncomfortable night spent in the Convent, and having executed the present drawing, Roberts decided to return to Jerusalem.

Robert arrived back in London in July 1839. During his intrepid expedition he had filled three sketchbooks and executed over 270 drawings. His portfolio surpassed anything that had been seen in Britain before and the material provided him with inspiration for much of his future work. Indeed, Roberts returned to the subject of Bethlehem again. Using the present drawing as a reference, he executed a watercolour which formed the basis for plate 85 in his celebrated book of lithographs The Holy Land (published between 1842 and 1849).² Further to this, in 1853 he exhibited an oil painting entitled Bethlehem, Looking Towards the Dead Sea, which shows the landscape from a similar perspective.³ We are grateful to Briony Llewellyn for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.

1. MS Eastern Journal, National Library of Scotland
2. Private collection
3. H. Guiterman and B. Llewellyn, David Roberts, London 1986, cat. 157, no. 76