Egypt: Yesterday and Today

David Roberts, one of the most skilled landscape artists of his time, set out for Egypt in 1838, where he made countless sketches of the most remarkable sites and monuments during the course of his eleven-month journey through Egypt, Sinai, and the Levant.

Superb lithographs made from his work, first published between 1846 and 1848, are richly reproduced here in resplendent color, along with Roberts's diary accounts of his travels along the Nile Valley from Alexandria to the fabulous Abu Simbel temples. Each illustration is accompanied by a photograph showing the same view more than 150 years later.

Fabio Bourbon's lucid essay introduces anew this nineteenth-century fine artist and contextualizes his images for the modern reader.

David Roberts (1796-1864) was one of the most acclaimed landscape painters of his time. He made an extended trip to Egypt and the Holy Land in 1838-39, during which he made the series of drawings that brought him lasting fame.