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 21, bt Vokins,

with 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 1842, vol. I, pl. 22 (as Jerusalem) & London 1855, pl. 22 

London, The Leger Galleries, English Watercolours, Annual Exhibition, 1984, no. 32;

London, Barbican Art Gallery, David Roberts, 1986-7, no. 160;

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

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

Even before Roberts and his party had left Cairo, they were aware the plague had been raging in Jerusalem for more than a year. Despite this disastrous news, Roberts was desperate to see ‘the great city’ and so from Jaffa they made their way there and camped outside the ancient walls. It was the 28^th of March 1839 and on the following day, 'Good Friday', Roberts learned that – miraculously – the quarantine had ended and the barriers to the city were to be removed. The whole population seemed to be pouring out of the gates to enjoy the open country.

As it was Easter week accommodation was difficult to find but they chanced upon a man they had met in Hebron who offered to put them up with his brother-in-law.¹ Roberts spent the next three days exploring before making an excursion to Bethlehem, via Bethany, Jericho, and the Convent of St Saba (see lots 314-319). He returned to Jerusalem for a further week on the 8^th of April before heading on to Nablus to the north.

The present watercolour is one of seven in the sale to focus on Jerusalem. It is evening and the fast-sinking sun floods the landscape with a dramatic light. A limpid pool fills the foreground and to the right, a group of people quietly talk, while their camels rest nearby and a woman fills a flask with water. In the distance, the Dome of the Rock and the city’s minarets are silhouetted against the horizon.

The watercolour was lithographed for The Holy Land series and was one of those that entered Lord Egerton’s collection (see lot 301 for further information on this collector). Later it belonged to Captain Eric Heatley Noble, a Grenadier Guard whose grandfather had made his fortune in paints and varnishes. Captain Noble’s uncle, Lieutenant-Colonel Leonard Noble (1859-1943), is recorded as being an ‘eclectic collector’ and this work may also have belonged to him.² For other works in this sale previously in the collection of Captain Noble please see lots 310-312, 318 and 325. 

We are grateful to Neil Jeffares for his help when cataloguing this lot.

^1. James Ballantine, The Life of David Roberts R.A., London 1866, p. 127

^2. N. Jeffares, ‘Biographical Index of Collectors’, Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, online edition, p. 71