THE EYE OF THE TRAVELER:David Robert's Egypt and the Holy Land

October 24, 2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 25, 2002

Media Exhibition Contact: Anne-Marie Wagener, director of press & public relations (612) 870-3280 Additional Contacts: Lynette Nyman, (612) 870-3173; Tammy Pleshek, (612) 870-3171

THE EYE OF THE TRAVELER: David Roberts’s Egypt and the Holy Land

October 8, 2002 – March 30, 2003 The Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Minneapolis, MINNESOTA – As a complement to the exhibition “Eternal Egypt: Masterworks of Ancient Art from The British Museum,” The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is offering a rare glimpse of the fascinating nineteenth-century travels through Egypt and the Middle East of Scottish landscape painter David Roberts, R.A. (1796-1864). On view through March 30, 2003, “The Eye of the Traveler: David Roberts’s Egypt and the Holy Land” presents twenty landscape and architectural views from Roberts’s illustrated volumes published between 1842 and 1949.

Roberts (b. Edinburgh, Scotland) was a gifted and prolific British landscape painter and draftsman who enjoyed wide popularity in his day for his refined and picturesque European views. But he is perhaps best known today for his monumental publication The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia, an opulent six-volume folio of landscape and architectural views of some of the most important historic and religious sites of ancient Egypt and the Middle East. A tour de force of nineteenth-century publishing, this ambitious and pioneering project has long been considered the benchmark for illustrated travel books.

During his travels, starting in 1838, Roberts kept a journal and made scores of detailed sketches of the ancient Egyptian temples and monuments that he encountered in the Nile River Valley, including the Great Sphinx and Pyramids at Giza, and ruined temples at Dendara, Thebes, Luxor, Karnac, Edfu, and the Island of Philae. Roberts and his expedition crossed the Sinai Desert on camelback, visiting many of the most important biblical sites of the Holy Land, including Petra, Hebron, Gaza, Jerusalem, Jericho, the Jordan River and the Dead Sea, Bethlehem, Nazareth, and the Sea of Galilee among others. Roberts ended his journey in Beirut in late spring of 1839, short of his intended goal of visiting Damascus and Palmyra, but satisfied with his accomplishments.

In preparation for the publication of his Middle Eastern views, Roberts produced a series of finished watercolors from his rich bounty of drawings and sketches. These new watercolor drawings served as the models for the publication’s folio-sized lithographic plates. Roberts and his London-based publisher Francis Graham Moon enlisted the Belgian-born lithographer Louis Haghe (1806-1895) to translate Roberts’s meticulous watercolor designs to stone. The collaboration proved to be highly beneficial, with Haghe’s lithographs earning the highest of praise from Roberts and subscribers alike. The Reverend George Croly and William Brockedon were given the work of providing historical descriptions to accompany each of the illustrations.

The resulting publication, issued in 40 parts over eight years, received unanimous critical acclaim, both for its meritorious artistic achievement and for its romantic portrayal of the exotic and mysterious lands of the Bible and pharaonic Egypt. Seen from a distance of 160 years, Roberts’s grand vision continues to delight viewers and historians, and will forever link his name with the monumental grandeur of ancient Egypt and the Holy Land. These exquisite tinted and hand-colored lithographs were drawn from the museum’s permanent collection and several Twin Cities private collections, including that of the Hennepin Avenue United Methodist Church. Most of the prints on view are derived from the deluxe edition of Roberts’s folio, which featured 247 hand-colored plates produced to the artist’s exacting specifications.

Born near Edinburgh, Scotland, Roberts was a self-taught artist who began his career as a house decorator and theatrical scene painter. He later perfected his skill as a landscape specialist during the numerous sketching tours he made in Britain and on the continent. His practice of drawing directly from nature, coupled with an instinctive sense of the picturesque and unwavering commitment to topographical fidelity, earned Roberts a reputation as one of Britain’s leading landscapists.

“The Eye of the Traveler: David Roberts’s Egypt and the Holy Land” is on view through March 30, 2003 in Gallery 319 at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

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