Jerusalem from the road leading to Bethany.

A fine example from David Roberts' monumental works on the Middle East: The Holy Land and Egypt & Nubia, considered the greatest lithographically illustrated works issued in the 19th century. Roberts' masterpiece was issued in 41 parts over seven years in three states: tinted, tinted proof and in its finest form colored and mounted on card. It is beautifully lithographed by Louis Haghe, to whom Roberts paid tribute in glowing terms.
David Roberts was born is Scotland in 1796. In 1838 he made plans for his journey to the Near East, inspired by a love of artistic adventure: departing in August 1839 for Alexandria, he spent the remaining part of the year in Cairo, visiting the numerous tombs and sites. In February of the following year he set out to cross the desert for the Holy Land by way of Suez, Mount Sinai and Petra arriving in Gaza, and then on to Jerusalem, concluding his tour spending several months visiting the biblical sites of the Holy Land, and finally returning to England at the end of 1840. The drawings of his tour were submitted to F.G. Moon in 1840 who arranged to bring out a work illustrative of Scripture History. Roberts' works were published (in conjunction with the lithographer Louis Haghe) in a six volume set, in which all 248 lithographs were hand colored. The first three volumes depicted Egypt and Nubia: the second three, the Holy Land. Both the exhibition of his original watercolors and the subsequent published work were an immediate success and confirmed his reputation as an architectural and landscape artist of the highest order. Roberts was admitted to the Royal Academy and he continued to travel and paint until his death in 1864.
After more than 150 years his paintings are still the most beloved and popular illustrations of Egypt and are highly sought after by collectors.
Cf. Abbey Travel I, 272 & II, 385: cf. Blackmer 1432: cf. Gay 2216: cf. Ibrahim-Hilmy II,p.176: cf. Lipperheide Ma 27: cf. Röhrict 1984: cf. Tobler p. 229: cf. Tooley 402.