Minneapolis Institute of Art

Great Hall at Karnac, Thebes

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. While other commentators wondered at the scale of the Karnak Temple Complex as seen from afar, Roberts had a different take, It is only on coming near that you are overwhelmed with astonishment: You must be under these stupendous masses--you must look up to them, and walk around them--before you can feel that neither language nor painting can convey a just idea of the emotions they excite. That such masses could ever have been displaced seems to be as surprising as that they were ever erected: but there is abundant evidence that fire was one of the means of destruction employed; at least in the closer passages and corridors, where stones splintered by this element in every direction. Nonetheless, Roberts's image of the Great Hypostyle Hall conveys some sense of both the grandeur and the ruin of the 50, 000 square foot structure that was supported by 134 massive columns arranged in 16 rows. Great Britain, Europe

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