Plain talk

By Musri Saad El-Din

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The spell of Egypt has touched artists as well as writers. During the previous centuries, British travellers, archaeologists, artists and writers continued to discover the beauty of the Egyptian scene, the fascinating remains of a civilisation which flourished long before the dawn of European history. Many Britishers became regular visitors of Egypt and in the 19th century, in particular, artists, designers and travellers of all kinds were able to experience Egyptian culture at first hand. Many recorded it.

According to Patrick Conner, the interest in Egypt originally had two causes: Egypt's role in the Bible and in the development of Christianity, and the belief that the civilisations of Greece and Rome had sprung from ancient Egypt, a belief which recent researches have supported. WM Thackery in his Journey from Cornhill to Cairo (1846) wrote, "I never saw such a variety of architecture, of life... of brilliant colour and light and shade. There is a picture in every street and at every bazaar stall."

The first professional artist to visit Egypt from Britain was Richard Dalton, who arrived in Egypt in 1749. His medium of painting was water colour and one of his well known paintings was Dancing Girls of Egypt, which Conner describes as full of human interest and vividly recorded aspects of the Egyptian scene at the time. Interest in Egypt continued through the 19th century and while concern with the Biblical and classical civilisation continued, the discoveries of tombs and temples resulted in a switch of interest. It was now recognised that ancient Egypt was a highly civilised and culturally advanced country, a source of inspiration to the whole world.

What enhanced interest in Egypt even further was Napoleon's expedition and the material published by his savants. For some time the main artists were French, yet reproductions of their work were produced in Britain. In fact their art work inspired the interior design in some English houses, including not only pyramids and obelisks, but also a lighthouse (in honour of Alexandria), lotus capitals, entablature figures and sarcophagi.

I wonder how widely known it is that the famous English landscape painter JMW Turner made a painting called Fifth Plague of Egypt in 1800 and Tenth Plague of Egypt, two years later. Actually Turner's interest in Egypt goes back to his early career. His historical painting, now lost, was Battle of the Nile at 10 O'Clock When L'Orient Blew Up. That was really the title of the painting, which as the title suggests depicts the blowing up of the ship Orient by Nelson in the famous battle of Abu Kir. The painting, according to Conner, was on show at the Royal Academy in 1799.

But of course the English artist who has become closely associated with Egypt and the Near East is David Roberts. He is widely known for his paintings and lithographs of Egypt and the Near East. A biography of Roberts by Katherine Sim appeared in 1984 and was accompanied by a video film showing more than 100 of his Egyptian lithographs.

Roberts produced six volumes of lithographs, three of which were devoted to Egypt. His lithographs and paintings remain the largest single record of Egyptian sites. Johanna Firbank says about them: "A rare artistic delight... his work is also of great importance as a record of monuments since altered or destroyed, or moved because of the Dam and Lake Nasser."