Minneapolis Institute of Art

The Great Sphinx, Pyramids of Gizeh

David Roberts; Lithographer: Louis Haghe; Publisher: Sir Francis Graham Moon

Date

1846

Medium

Tinted and hand-colored lithograph

Department

European Art

Institution

Minneapolis Institute of Art

In 1838, Scottish painter David Roberts toured the Near East, making him one of the first British artists to gain first-hand knowledge of the region. He went from Egypt to the Sinai and Petra, arriving in Jerusalem at Easter 1839. Remaining there for a few weeks, he then continued north to Lebanon and departed from Beirut in May. From the outset of his journey, Roberts planned to publish a great set of Near-Eastern views, which eventually appeared as The Holy Land, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia. He worked with lithographer Louis Haghe (1806-1885) to develop a six-volume magnum opus, containing 247 hand-colored lithographs based on his on-the-spot drawings. To fund the project, he exhibited his original drawings in London and used the exhibition catalogue as a prospectus to recruit subscribers. Four hundred signed up, and the series was published in parts from 1842 to 1849.This was one of the 19th century's most elaborate topographical publications illustrated with hand-colored lithographs. It was also one of the last, for photography soon became the preferred medium for views of far off lands. Nonetheless, Roberts's and Haghe's prints remained central to understanding of Egypt and the Holy Land in Victorian Britain. A sphinx is a mythical creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. In his journal, Roberts commented that No monument in existence strikes the observer with a greater impression of vastness than the Sphinx near the pyramids of Geezeh (Giza).... He calculated that the Sphinx's head is nearly 40, 000 times larger than the human head it represents, and noted that the sculpture is 100 feet tall and 146 feet long. Trying to imagine how the worn and damaged countenance might originally have seemed, Roberts thought of the quiet repose and dignity of expression, which generally characterised the colossal sculpture of that remote but, in this art, highly advanced period. Great Britain, Europe

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