<< YCBA Home Yale Center for British Art Yale Center for British Art << YCBA Home

YCBA Collections Search

 
IIIF Actions
Creator:
David Roberts, 1796–1864
Title:

The Great Temple of Amon Karnak, The Hypostyle Hall

Date:
1838
Medium:
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"

Signed and dated in brushed gray watercolor, lower right: "David Roberts R.A. 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 | columns | horse (animal) | men | temple
Associated Places:
Africa | Al Karnak | As Said | Egypt | Luxor | Qina | Temple of Amon
Access:
Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
Note: The Study Room is open by appointment. Please visit the Study Room page on our website for more details.
Link:
https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:5995
Export:
XML
IIIF Manifest:
JSON

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)
Robert's identity quickly became bound up with his depictions of the exotic East. When Robert Scott Lauder (1803-1869) painted his portrait in 1840, he chose to depict Roberts in the Arab dress he had acquired on his travels to facilitate safe passage through Egypt and the Holy Land in preparation for making chromolithographs produced in a six-volume set between 1842 and 1849, titled The Holy Land, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia. The watercolor The Great Temple of Amon Karnak, the Hypostyle Hall was made for the fourth volume, devoted to Egyptian remains, and was based on the sketches he had made while traveling through the region in late 1838. At that time, the history of Egypt was still myserious and in the process of being unraveled. The discovery of the Rosetta Stone by French sikduiers in 1799 opened up the possibility of deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics for the first time, a task accomplished in 1822. In the meantime, the uninitiated looked upon the ruins with perplexity. As Roscoe put it, "The remains of Egyptian magnitude bewilder the mind with doubt and strange inquiry."

Roberts set out to illustrate the principal sites in Egypt, and this view, dated November 27, 1838, depicts the vast Hypostyle Hall at Karnak, built by Sety I and Ramases II, which was already a famous ruin by the time Roberts sketched it. "What shall I say about Carnac?" he wondered in a letter home: "Its grandeur cannot be imagined, were I to write what I think it would be merely rhapsody." His stage background suggested one possible solution. While the viewer is initially seduced by Robert's evocation of a calm oasis in the foreground shade, the eye is quickly drawn to the dramatic coup de théâtre in the background, where the serenity is shattered by the sudden appearance of a giant column slanting at a precipitous angle. 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 ancient temple by playing the unstable masonry off against the seemingly insignificant modern Egyptians who shelter within it. The fallen columns not only hints at the decline of modern Egypt, but it also suggests a moral lesson on the transience of earthly glory for imperial Britain, just as Shelley's celebrated poem "Ozymandias" (1818) pointed to the absurdity of the worldy pretensions of Karnak's builder, Ramases II.

Matthew Hargraves

Hargraves, Matthew, and Scott Wilcox. Great British Watercolors: from the Paul Mellon collection. New Haven: Yale Center for British Art, 2007, p. 166, 72

The Critique of Reason : Romantic Art, 1760–1860 (Yale University Art Gallery, 2015-03-06 - 2015-07-26) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Connections (Yale Center for British Art, 2011-05-26 - 2011-09-11) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

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) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

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) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

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) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Edward Lear and the Art of Travel (Yale Center for British Art, 2000-09-20 - 2001-01-14) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Egypt - The Legacy (Sarah Lawrence College Art Gallery, 1990-02-13 - 1990-04-22) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Oil on Water - Oil Sketches by British Watercolorists (Yale Center for British Art, 1986-08-26 - 1986-11-09) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Orientalism - Near East in French Painting (Neuberger Museum of Art, Purchase College, 1982-11-04 - 1982-12-23) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

Orientalism - Near East in French Painting (Memorial Art Gallery of Rochester, 1982-08-27 - 1982-10-17) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition]

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) [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) [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) [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) [YCBA]

Yale Center for British Art, Great British watercolors : from the Paul Mellon Collection, Yale University Press, New Haven, 2007, pp. 166-67, no. 72, ND1928 .Y35 2007 (LC)+ Oversize (YCBA) [YCBA]


If you have information about this object that may be of assistance please contact us.