Rhodesfarmer1614
The scenery and monuments of Egypt and Holy Land were fashionable but had hitherto been hardly touched by British artists, and so Roberts quickly accumulated 400 subscription commitments, with Queen Victoria being subscriber No. 1. Her complete set is still within the Royal Assortment. Roberts made a protracted tour in Egypt, Nubia, the Sinai, the Holy Land, Jordan and Lebanon. On mapboxgl.com to Britain, Roberts worked with lithographer Louis Haghe from 1842 to 1849 to supply the lavishly illustrated plates of The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia, originally revealed as Sketches in the Holy Land and Syria, 1842-1849 and Egypt & Nubia series.
Roberts set sail for Egypt on 31 August 1838, a number of years after Owen Jones. He later reproduced this scene, apparently from memory, in Quantity three of Egypt & Nubia. Egypt was much in vogue right now, and travellers, collectors and lovers of antiquities had been eager to buy works inspired by the East or depicting the good monuments of historical Egypt. Caminer, David, John Aris, Peter Hermon and Frank Land (eds). Roberts, David, File Guide, 1829-1864, unpublished manuscript, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven. Roberts, David, Jap Journal, 1838-1839, unpublished manuscript, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh. Upon Roberts's return to Edinburgh in 1840, his fellow-artist, Robert Scott Lauder, painted his portrait.
His final quantity of illustrations, Italy, Classical, Historic and Picturesque, was published in 1859. In 1839 he was elected an affiliate and in 1841 a full member of the Royal Academy; and in 1858 he was presented with the freedom of town of Edinburgh. In 1851, and again in 1853, Roberts visited Italy, painting the Ducal Palace, Venice, bought by Lord Londesborough, the Inside of the Basilica of St Peters, Rome, Christmas Day, 1853, and Rome from the Convent of St Onofrio, offered to the Royal Scottish Academy. Muhammad Ali Pasha acquired Roberts in Alexandria on 16 Might 1839, shortly before his return to the UK.
