Lot 89

DAVID ROBERTS AND THE NEAR EAST David Roberts' visit to the Near East in 1838-9 was 'the great central episode of his artistic life'; according to his friend and biographer James Ballantine. The preparatory note to Roberts' great publication, The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia, published with 247 lithographs by Louis Haghe after Roberts' drawings in five volumes 1842-9, stated that 'To visit the Holy Land and make drawings of the scenes of sacred history and the antiquities of Egypt, had been, long before this journey was undertaken by Mr. Roberts, the brightest of his anticipations as an artist' (see B. Llewellyn, 'Roberts' Pictures of the Near East' in H. Guiterman and B. Llewellyn, David Roberts, exhibition catalogue, London, Barbican Art Gallery, 1986, p.69). Roberts left London on 21 August 1838 and arrived at Alexandria on 24 September. He was in Cairo from 30 September, setting out up the Nile in his own boat on 6 October. He went as far as the second Cataract, visiting the temples of Dendera 19-20 October, Luxor and Karnak 23 October, Edfou 26 October, Philae 30 October - 1 November and Abu Simbel 8-9 November. He began his return journey down the Nile on 11 November, revisiting and making drawings at, among other places, Philae 17-19 November, and Karnak, Luxor and the plain of Thebes 27 November - 4 December. He reached Cairo on 21 December and spent over a month there before setting out for the Holy Land on 7 February 1839. Roberts left for Syria on 7 February 1839, travelling via Suez, the Monastery of St. Catherine, Akaba, Petra and Jaffa, and reached Jerusalem on 28 March. After a tour of the Holy Land he returned to Jerusalem on 8 April, and after a further tour to the north, including Baalbec and Beirut, he returned by sea to Alexandria, where he spent a week 15-23 May, and, after a month's quarantine in Malta 28 May - 27 June, reached London on 21 July. Roberts' great publication was first published in monthly parts and subsequently in five or six volumes (references in these entries are to the five volume set in the British Library). The first two volumes covering the Holy Land and with a 'historical description' by the Rev. George Croly, L.L.D., were published in 1842 and 1843 with the full title as given above. Three further volumes appeared in 1846, 1849 and (again) 1849 with the simplified title Egypt and Nubia; the historical descriptions are by William Brockedon, F.R.S.. References to volume and plate numbers are confused. Louis Haghe's lithographs after Roberts' drawings are alternatively full and half-page. THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

David Roberts, R.A. (1796-1864)

Jerusalem from the Road leading to Bethany

Details

David Roberts, R.A. (1796-1864)
Jerusalem from the Road leading to Bethany
signed 'David Roberts.' (lower right), inscribed and dated 'Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives./April 8th.1839.' (lower left), and with further indistinct inscription 'Jerusalem/From the road leading to Bethany./Bought at the sale of Mr/James Hopgood's Collection/at Christie's. March 27 18....' (on a label attached to the backing)
pencil and watercolour heightened with white on buff paper
12¾ x 18¾in. (32.4 x 47.6cm.)

Provenance

Francis, 1st Earl of Ellesmere; Christie's London, 2 Apr. 1870, lot 5 (43gns. to Hopgood).
Sir James Hopgood; Christie's London, 27 Mar. 1897, lot 118 as 'Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives', 14 x 19in. (19 gns. to Agnews).
Anon. sale, Christie's London, 27 May 1918, with 'Fragments of the Great Colossus at the Memnonium', lot 28 (21gns. to Sampson).
R. Brocklebank.
W. Lawson Peacock; Christie's London, 6 Feb. 1925, lot 37 (10½gns. to Brocklebank).
Sir Edmund Brocklebank and thence by descent.

Literature

N. Ran, ed., David Roberts, R.A.: The Holy Land, 1987, 2nd ed. 1989, pp.I-43-5, III-69.

Engraved

L. Haghe, lithograph, 1842, for D. Roberts, The Holy Land..., 1842, Vol.I, pl.6, 1842.

Lot Essay

Confusion over the titles of this work and that lithographed under the title 'Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives' (Holy Land, Vol.I, pl.18) extends to Roberts himself in the inscription on the present drawing, but the view here is from further south than the Mount of Olives, on the old road to Jericho via Bethany.
Roberts was at Jerusalem on 28 March 1839 and again 8-15 April. A watercolour sketch, presumably done on the spot for this finished watercolour and dated 8 April 1839, was sold in these Rooms, 2 March 1976, lot 162 (5,000). A large oil version of the composition, signed and dated 1841, 47 x 83in., painted for Lord Monson, was exhibited with the title Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives at the Royal Academy in 1841, no.399, and is now in Royal Holloway College; further versions were painted in 1845 and 1860. The so-called Tomb of Absalom shown in the foreground of the composition was the subject of a separate watercolour study dated 11 April 1839, (with Spink's), and was lithographed by Haghe for The Holy Land, Vol.I, pl.25.
We are grateful to Briony Llewellyn for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.

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