19th-century British artist David Roberts captures the rich barrenness of the Holy Land
040
David Roberts (1796–1864), a Scottish cobbler’s son, showed such precocious artistic talent that when he was just ten years old his mother apprenticed him to a local housepainter-decorator. For seven years young David painted faux marble and wood on the walls of the well-to-do before becoming an assistant set designer at a theater in Edinburgh. Before long, he left Scotland for the brighter lights of London, where he not only became a successful painter of theatrical scenery but also produced oil paintings that were displayed at the Royal Academy. Spurred on by this success, Roberts became a full-time artist, going on frequent excursions to the Continent in search of pictorial material. In 1832 he traveled to Spain and was so beguiled by the remnants of Moorish culture that he determined to visit the exotic East. Six years later Roberts sailed to Alexandria, Egypt, where he hired a boat and crew and headed up the Nile, sketching ancient monuments and temples during his three-month voyage. He then set off on a half-year’s journey across the Sinai peninsula and north to Jerusalem, the Jordan Valley and ancient Baalbek in eastern Lebanon. After returning to England in 1839, Roberts placed about 250 of his Holy Land drawings in the hands of printmaker Louis Haghe, who transformed them into hand-tinted lithographs. Published in three volumes between 1842 and 1849, The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia was wildly popular with the public and acclaimed by the critics. When David Roberts died at the age of 68, he left behind a timeless record of the Holy Land’s ancient ruins.
David Roberts (1796–1864), a Scottish cobbler’s son, showed such precocious artistic talent that when he was just ten years old his mother apprenticed him to a local housepainter-decorator. For seven years young David painted faux marble and wood on the walls of the well-to-do before becoming an assistant set designer at a theater in Edinburgh. Before long, he left Scotland for the brighter lights of London, where he not only became a successful painter of theatrical scenery but also produced oil paintings that were displayed at the Royal Academy. Spurred on by this success, Roberts became a full-time artist, […]
You have already read your free article for this month. Please join the BAS Library or become an All Access member of BAS to gain full access to this article and so much more.
