David Roberts, R.A.

Lithographed:

Holy Land, 1849 & 1856, vol. III, pl. 113. as Christian and Mohammedan Chapels on the Summit of Mount Sinai

In 1838 Roberts embarked on an eleven month tour that was not only ground-breaking but career defining. He left London in August and travelling via Paris and Marseilles, he disembarked at Alexandria just under a month later. From there he moved south to Cairo and chartered a boat to take him up the Nile. He was the first professional British artist, travelling independently, to undertake this journey and he marvelled at the wondrous ancient sites of Abu Simbel, Philae, Dendera, Luxor, and Karnak.

On 7 February, after two further months in Cairo, he set off into the desert, accompanied by an interpreter, fifteen Bedouin from the Benisaid tribe, twenty-one camels and two fellow Scots. Roberts and his compatriots wore local dress, partly to protect themselves against the harsh conditions but also to disguise the fact that they were foreign.

By 10 February the party had reached Suez, where they cooled off in the Red Sea. From there Roberts crossed the Sinai desert, to Petra, before heading north, via Hebron and Jaffa, to Jerusalem, where he arrived on 28 March. From Jerusalem he made a number of excursions, including to Bethlehem and the Dead Sea, before he travelled northwards again, first to the great ruins of Baalbek and finally to Beirut.

When Roberts arrived back in Britain in July 1839, he carried with him a portfolio that he felt was "one of the richest… that ever left the East." It contained 272 drawings, ranging from studies of Egyptian temples and Islamic mosques, to Holy Land scenery. These drawings formed the basis for a series of lithographs which, between 1842 and 1849, were published under the title: The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia. This iconic work caused a sensation in Victorian Britain and secured forever Robert’s reputation as an intrepid traveller and one of the foremost architectural and landscape artists of his time.

The present work is the ‘finished drawing’, created back in England, and lithographed for his opus magnus. He made the (now untraced) 'on-the-spot' sketch on the 20 February 1839 and on that day he noted in his journal: 'To-day we ascended to the summit of Sinai which took us two hours. Near the top are two small chapels, one covers the cave where Elijah was fed by the ravens, the other is dedicated to Elias and on the summit are two others; one where Moses received the tablets of the law and the other belongs to the Mahomedans; immediately under it is pointed out the footmark of the camel which carried him from Mount Ararat to Mecca. The view from the top is the most sublime that can be imagined and once seen never to be forgotten.’¹

We are grateful to Briony Llewellyn for her help when cataloguing this lot.

1. David Roberts, Eastern Journal, 20 February 1839; Archives and Manuscripts Collections, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh, Acc 7723/2