Louis Haghe’s lithograph, “Ruins of the Temple of Medamout, near Thebes”, 1847, after David Roberts

(Designer) David Roberts (1796–1864); (Lithographer) Louis Haghe (1806–1885)

“Ruins of the Temple of Medamout, near Thebes” (aka “Ruins of the Temple of Madînat Habû at Thebes, Egypt”; note that the spelling of the temple is sometimes shown as “Temple of Medamoud”), 1847, hand-coloured (as published) lithograph after a drawing by David Roberts, published in London in 1847, by F G Moon (aka Sir Francis Graham Moon 1st baronet) (1796–1871) as an illustration (plate 185) to vol. 5, “The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia”. Archive.org offers an online view of this print in its context in the publication from the 1855 edition without hand-colouring as published by Day & Son; see https://archive.org/details/holylandsyriaidu5to6robe/page/n59/mode/2up.

Lithograph printed in bistre coloured ink and hand-tinted with watercolour gleaming with Gum Arabic with pinhole registration points at the corners of the image (as published) on heavy wove paper with text verso. The sheet has been trimmed below the lettered title.

Note: The Royal Academy advises: “Most of the lithographs [in this publication] were printed with two tint stones, usually blue for sky and neutral for foreground. Roberts's method of working with transparent washes over pencil outlines was well suited to reproduction by lithography” (https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/art-artists/book/egypt-and-nubia-from-drawings-made-on-the-spot-by-david-roberts-r-a-with). See also a description of this print offered by the Welcome Collection: https://wellcomecollection.org/works/vacnp4ut.

Size: (sheet) 34.7 x 41.9 cm; (image borderline) 25.2 x 35 cm.

Inscribed in plate within the image borderline at lower left: “Ruins of the Temple of Medamout, near Thebes”; (right) “David Roberts, R. A. – L. Haghe lith”

Lettered below the image borderline: “London Published by F.G.Moon 20 Threadneedle S^t. May1^st.1847/ RUINS OF THE TEMPLE OF MEDAMOUT, NEAR THEBES.” 

Condition: a marvellously strong impression, in near faultless condition with no significant stains or foxing.

I am selling this gloriously luminous lithograph from the first edition (?) with hand-colouring as published, for AU$347 (currently US$231.93/EUR209.85/GBP184.73 at the time of this listing) including Express Mail (EMS) postage and handling to anywhere in the world, but not (of course) any import duties/taxes imposed by some countries.

If you are interested in purchasing this rare and very beautiful lithograph capturing not only the baking heat of early morning in Egypt, but also a superb record of the use of lotus capitals showing both the closed bud and open/expanded flower forms, please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal invoice to make the payment easy.