Interview with the Viceroy of Egypt, at his Palace, Alexandria, May 12th 1839

Location

Country: Egypt
City: Cairo
Place: British Embassy

David Roberts, son of a shoemaker from Stockbridge, Edinburgh, began his career at the age of ten as an apprentice to a house painter. On completing his apprenticeship he was employed on the decoration of Scone Palace in Perthshire. He later became a scene painter for James Bannister, who ran a circus in Edinburgh, and at the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, before moving to London in 1822, where he turned to easel painting. Roberts exhibited at the British Institution, Society of British Artists and Royal Academy. He is best-known for topographical paintings and illustrations resulting from trips to Spain and the Middle East. He died aged 68 at his home in Fitzroy Street, near Tottenham Court Road, London, and is buried at Norwood Cemetery.
Louis Haghe was born in Belgium, the son of an architect. He trained under the Chevalier de la Barrière, later becoming his lithographic assistant. In c.1823, Haghe travelled to London, where his lithographs were printed by William Day, with whom he enjoyed a long, successful collaboration. By the 1820s, he had taken up watercolour painting. He later produced tinted lithographs, including 250 for Roberts’s ‘The Holy Land...’ (1842-49). From the 1850s he focused on watercolours. He was President of the New Society of Painters in Watercolours (1873-84) and a Knight of the Order of Leopold I. He was also a member of the Academies of Belgium (1847) and Antwerp, and the New Society of Painters in Watercolours. He died in Surrey at the age of 78.

People

Muhammad Ali (1769 - 1849), Artin Bey) Artin Chrakian (1804 - 1859), Boghos Bey) Boghos Yusufian (1775 - 1844), Patrick Campbell (1779 - 1857), Thomas Waghorn (1800 - 1850), David Roberts (1796 - 1864), Louis Maurice Adolphe Linant de Bellefonds (1799 - 1883), Henry Tattam (1788 - 1868)

Places

Egypt, Middle East

Subjects

smoking pipe, orientalism, topography, townscape/cityscape, sea, diplomatic service uniform, turban, fan, epaulettes, fez (Headgear), tray, Viceroy of Egypt, diplomatic meetings & state visits, diplomat, musket, sword, palace, column, window, curtain, sofa, ship

Materials & Techniques

coloured lithograph

Artist

David Roberts (1796 - 1864)
Louis Haghe (1806 - 1885)

Title

Interview with the Viceroy of Egypt, at his Palace, Alexandria, May 12th 1839

Date

published 1 December 1849

Medium

Hand-coloured lithograph

Dimensions

height: 34.60 cm, width: 48.70 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Eyre and Hobhouse, November 1982

GAC number

16131