Yale Center for British Art

Creator:
David Roberts, 1796–1864, British
Title:
The Great Temple of Amon Karnak, The Hypostyle Hall
Date:
1838
Materials & Techniques:
Watercolor and gouache with scratching out and graphite on moderately thick, slightly textured, beige wove paper
Dimensions:
Sheet: 19 1/4 x 13 inches (48.9 x 33 cm)
Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:
Inscribed in graphite, lower right: "<...>ES | KARNAC | Nov. 27th 1838"; in brushed gray watercolor, lower left: "Karnac [. . .] 1838"
Credit Line:
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
Copyright Status:
Public Domain
Accession Number:
B1975.4.1579
Classification:
Drawings & Watercolors
Collection:
Prints and Drawings
Subject Terms:
architectural subject | horse (animal) | temple | columns | men
Associated Places:
Luxor | As Said | Al Karnak | Qina | Egypt | Africa | Temple of Amon
Currently On View:
Not on view
Exhibition History:
The Critique of Reason : Romantic Art, 1760–1860 (Yale University Art Gallery, 2015-03-06 - 2015-07-26)

Connections (Yale Center for British Art, 2011-05-26 - 2011-09-11)

Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)

Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (The State Hermitage Museum, 2007-10-23 - 2008-01-13)

Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, 2007-07-11 - 2007-09-30)

Edward Lear and the Art of Travel (Yale Center for British Art, 2000-09-20 - 2001-01-14)

Egypt - The Legacy (Sarah Lawrence College Art Gallery, 1990-02-13 - 1990-04-22)

Oil on Water - Oil Sketches by British Watercolorists (Yale Center for British Art, 1986-08-26 - 1986-11-09)

Orientalism - Near East in French Painting (Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester, 1982-08-27 - 1982-10-17)

Orientalism - Near East in French Painting (Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, 1982-11-04 - 1982-12-23)
Publications:
Malcolm Cormack, Oil on water : oil sketches by British watercolorists, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 1986, pp. 48-49, fig. 49, ND467 C67 (YCBA)

Donald A. Rosenthal, Orientalism, the Near East in French painting, 1800-1880, Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 1982, pp. 136-37, fig. 135, ND547 .R79 1982 (YCBA)

Sarah Lawrence College Art Gallery, Egypt : the source and the legacy : ancient Egyptian and Egyptian Revival objects, Sarah Lawrence College Art Gallery, Bronxville, NY, 1989, pp. 14, 16, 21, no. 85, N7381 .E58 1989 + Oversize (YCBA)

Scott Wilcox, Edward Lear and the art of travel, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 2000, pp. 34, 174, no. 193, NJ18 L455 W55 2000 (YCBA)

Yale Center for British Art, Great British watercolors : from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, pp. 166-167, no. 72, ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA)
Gallery Label:
David Roberts’s The Holy Land, Idumea, Egypt, and Nubia, which appeared in six volumes between 1842 and 1849, is one of the most monumental illustrated travel books of the nineteenth century. This watercolor, dated November 27, 1838, depicting the vast Hypostyle Hall at Karnak built by Seti I and Rameses II, was reproduced as a lithograph in the fourth volume. Roberts frequently exaggerated the scale of the Egyptian ruins by depicting the human figures artificially small, in this case suggesting the fearsome immensity of the temple by playing the unstable masonry off against the seemingly insignificant modern Egyptians who shelter within it. Gallery label for Great British Watercolors from the Paul Mellon Collection at the Yale Center for British Art (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-06-09 - 2008-08-17)
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:5995