2-727-729 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Egypt and Nubia, Volume II: Fragments of the Great Colossi at the Memnonium, Thebes, 1847. By the mid 19th century, the complexities of printing in numerous colours had been mastered, culminating in one of the high points of European printmaking. The plates drawn by Haghe, which copy the watercolours that David Roberts made in Egypt, are exquisite examples of colour lithography. Egypt was a distant, mysterious country for Europeans and Haghe, a Scottish topographical and architectural artist who spent the year of 1838 traveling across this ancient land. The resulting prints—the first comprehensive series of views of the monuments, landscapes, and people of the Near East—were especially appreciated for their brilliant colour and large scale. Bonebrake’s 134 prints of Egypt are an important addition to the Cleveland Museum of Art’s collection, and in a sense they have returned home: a large group of them was loaned to the 1992 exhibition Nineteenth-Century Views of Egypt.