David Roberts, R.A.

Lord Francis Egerton, later 1^st Earl of Ellesmere (1800-1857), purchased from the artist,

The Ellesmere Sale, London, Christie's, 2 April 1870, lot 84, bt Agnew;

with Agnew’s, London,

by whom sold to J. & W. Vokins, London;

Captain Eric Heatley Noble of Park Place, near Henley and then later Harpsden Court, Henley-on-Thames, by 1945;

sale, Oxford, Mallams, 28 October 1983, unknown lot number, bt Leger,

with The Leger Galleries, London, from whom acquired in 1984 by Agnew's on behalf of the parents of the present owners. 

Lithographed: 

by Louis Haghe for The Holy Land, London 1843, vol. II, pl. 85 & London 1855, vol. II, pl. 85

G. Norman, ‘Treasures from the Orientalists’, The Times, 29 October 1983

Manchester, Art Treasures Exhibition, 1857, Section 7: Drawings in Water-Colours, no. 769;

London, The Leger Galleries, English Watercolours, Annual Exhibition, 1984, no. 33;

London, Barbican Art Gallery, David Roberts, 1986-7, no. 156;

Oxford, The Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, on long-term loan, 2015 - 2021  

Roberts reached Bethlehem on the 5^th of April following a short ride from the Convent of Saint Saba (see the previous lot). He described the approach in his journal, writing that: ‘cultivation began to appear… [the] immediate neighbourhood abounds with fields of corn, olive and fig-trees. The Church of the Nativity crowns the height on which the town is situated and attached to it are the Latin, Greek and Armenian Convents.’¹

This watercolour was lithographed for The Holy Land series and was one of those acquired directly from the artist by Lord Egerton. Later it formed part of Captain Eric Hartley Noble’s magnificent collection (see lots 301 and 309 for more information on these collectors).

^1. J. Ballantine, The Life of David Roberts, R.A., London 1866, p. 130