Travel Tips

Whislt on holiday in egypt i bought a very good book about David Roberts who travelled to egypt in 1838 -9 drawing and painting what he saw on his travels and publishing them on his return to england fascinating the english public with egypyology.
you see the temples and ruins not as they are toady but in a more romantic way the roberts used the light and scenes that he saw.

David Roberts was born in 1796 in Edinburgh the son of a cobbler ,he started work at a early age becoming a painter specialising in imitating marble and wood .He worked in the theatre painting scenery in Edinburgh and Glasgow moving to London in 1822 where he work at the London Durary Lane Theatre
Around this time David Roberts began exhibiting watercolours and oil paintings as well as illuststrating in books with his sketches gaining praise and also commercial success
Between 1824 and 1830 he travelled to France, Belgium ,Holland and Germany then between 1832-33 he visited Spain staying for 11months at Granada ,Cordova ,Madrid and Gibraltar where he crossed to Morocco and finally going to Seville for 5 months on his return to England he did illustrations for The Landscape Annual and produced 27 lithograph prints Roberts Picturesque Sketches of Spain
The prints from the Spanish subjects were very well received and from the money they had earned he organised his tour of the east were in 1838-9 he spent 11 months travelling Egypt ,Syria and the Holy land
Roberts work gives us a view of Egypt that is now lost ,his sketches and watercolours show us how colourful the temples and tombs of ancient Egypt were. Roberts was also very interested in architecture drawing many monuments which brought him great fame and wealth even today his work brings many thousands of pound in art sales rooms around the world .He would draw and paint the temples and ruins from many angles and at varying times of the day trying to catch the light at its different angles .

Luxor a general view
In this view by Roberts from the Nile you have view of Luxor temple starting with Ramese II obelisk with the pylon entrance to the temple, the minaret of the mosque of the Muslim saint Abu el-Haggag ,the fantastic colonnades of AmenhotepIII then the actual ruins of the temple ,in the fore ground feluccas and natives of Luxor sail up and down the river going about their life much like today.

Roberts paints the Karnak temple complex silhouetted at dawn on the horizon going from left to right you have the first pylon with the columns of Taharqa on to the second pylon in front of the hypostyle hall the obelisks of TuthmosisI and also Hapshepsut on the right is the festival hall of TuthmosisIII and finally the gateway of Nectanebo

David Roberts noted in his journal that the temple of Edfu was the most beautiful temple in all of Egypt. Roberts found Edfu buried in sand up to the temples roof ,the local villagers had built their mud brick house`s over the temple and also on roof of the main sanctuary and the hypostyle hall .the temple was uncovered by French archaeologist Auguste Mariette in the mid 19th century

The temple of Kom Ombo dedicated to the crocodile headed god Sobek and the falcon head god Horoeris looked a lot different in 1838 when Roberts painted the temple buried in sand from the desert and washed away by the Nile when in flood .What Roberts saw were the brightly coloured columns and relief's the excellent carvings jutting up out of the desert ,the temple was reconstructed in 1893 when it was excavated

Like many travellers before him Roberts would have had to cross the burning rock strewn desert to arrive at the beautiful and peaceful island of Philae were the temple to Isis is situated .Roberts drew and painted Philae in November 1838 showing views of the island that now rests below Lake Nasser
the photo shows the colonnaded court yard ,the pylon of the temple of Isis and to the right the kiosk of trajan .The title photo shows the island of Philae standing in the Nile among the arid and burning landscape

Roberts painted Abu Sibel in 1838 showing the sand from the desert blocking the entrance to the temple , Abu Simbel was rediscovered in 1813 by the Swiss explorer Jean-Louis Burkhartd , Giovanni Belzoni had cleared sufficient sand away in 1817 to gain entrance to the fantastic statues and relief's of RamsesII and the ancient Egyptian gods of Aunm Ptah and Ra-Harakhty .the paintings and drawing Roberts made of Abu Simbel are probably the most reproduced of his work he did in Egypt