3-016-956 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

"Caravan Arriving At A Well Near Thebes, Egypt," Mrs Roberton Blane [sic], Female Artists Exhibition, 1864. Engraving of a painting, '...which shows that ladies, who have often proved themselves the most adventurous of travellers, partake the general curiosity respecting the ancient and still mysterious East. The scene before us is one of the wells...in the neighbourhood of the ancient Egyptian ruined capital, near the...edge of the desert. These wells are very welcome to the traveller...Almost every sense is gratified at these little oases: the eye is relieved with a sight of a few palms...while the body is refreshed with rest and the tongue with a cooling draught...We may admire the picturesque groups...the Arab guards mounted and dismounted, the travellers or passengers squatted in a circle conversing, the Nubian water-carrier, and the women busy filling their bottles, the camels, some standing, others drinking at the troughs, and others hobbled and fastened to the ground. We have only to add that the accomplished lady who painted the original picture is the wife of a gentleman to whom all interested in art and artists must feel grateful for his long-continued exertions in seeking to obtain an amendment of the law of artistic copyright'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.