These handsome portfolios in a special new gift edition format contain ten fine art prints each of David Roberts's superb nineteenth-century lithographs of Egypt, ancient and modern. Between 1842 and 1849, on the basis of sketches made on the spot and aided by his excellent memory, David Roberts produced the drawings that Louis Haghe turned into prints published by Francis Graham Moon. These lithographs appeared in the original hand-painted deluxe edition. Published here on high-quality paper and suitable for framing, they reproduce architectural details, landscapes, and street scenes with an accuracy that today would be called photographic. These high-quality collections of prints celebrate the epic grandeur and fine detail of Roberts's views, in a format that complements his extraordinary artistic achievements.
David Roberts RA was a Scottish painter. He is especially known for a prolific series of detailed lithograph prints of Egypt and the Near East that he produced from sketches he made during long tours of the region (1838–1840). These and his large oil paintings of similar subjects made him a prominent Orientalist painter. He was elected as a Royal Academician in 1841.
I never thought I’d be able to see what Egypt (or Cairo to be more specific) looked like from a primary source in the 1840s but here we are!
All the art in this collection is a very fascinating look at Cairo nearly two centuries ago. There’s a lot of detail in the 10 lithographs so we can see what people did, what they wore, how they got around, what the architecture - of regular buildings and mosques - looked like and what the streets and surrounding landscape/topography looked like.
I noticed that there were a lot of people that just sat down (on the ground) in groups around the city making the city seem laid-back and very social which was fortunately possible because there weren’t any cars to take up and ruin all the space. The streets also looked beautiful and dense with plenty of people and a few animals that were used to ride on, once again due to the fact that there weren’t any cars. The architecture looked very nice, especially the grand mosques with beautiful art and engravings on the inside walls and beautiful domes and structures on the outside (like nowadays too).
A truly surreal book as it literally allows you to see what the past looked like (and even what it felt like!) due to the beautiful details in the lithographs by David Roberts. It would be very interesting to see these paintings alongside the city of Cairo now.