The Dead Sea, looking towards Moab. / Plate 50.

Title

The Dead Sea, looking towards Moab. / Plate 50.

The very beautiful hand-colored view of the Dead Sea, looking toward Moab (an ancient microstate in the Near East, today Jordan). In the foreground, an impressive city built into the rock. After the original drawing by David Roberts, 1839. Published by Day & Son, London.

c. 1855

Artist

Roberts (1796-1864)

David Roberts is one of the most important vedute painters of the 19th century. Thematically, his work can be partially assigned to orientalism. In 1832, on the advice of a friend, Roberts traveled to Spain, where he got to know almost all of the big cities and drew a large number of ruins and monuments. In 1837 a selection of these vedute appeared under the title Picturesque Sketches of Spain. This publication did not make him rich because his publisher had betrayed him, but it was the basis for his permanent international reputation and gave him the acquaintance of the talented Belgian engraver Louis Haghe. Robert's two-year stay in Spain, which had taken him to Tangier, evidently reinforced his latent interest in the Orient. In any case, after lengthy preparations, in August 1838 he set out on the trip to Egypt, which was to make him famous even after his death. For three months Roberts was on a rented ship on the Nile as far as Nubia and Abu Simbel and visited all important archaeological sites. He even managed to be the first European to step inside a mosque and draw. In the further course of his journey to Jerusalem, and from there to Lebanon, he suffered a persistent fever in Baalbek, which prevented him from continuing his journey. Finally, on May 13, 1839, Roberts started his journey home from Beirut. After Roberts had found the publisher Francis Graham Moon, all 247 lithographs of the journey to the Orient between 1842 and 1849 by the Belgian engraver Louis Haghe were published in six volumes in London. In 1841 Roberts became a full member of the Royal Academy and resumed his travel activities. David Roberts died in London on November 25, 1864 at the age of 68 and was buried in Norwood Cemetery.

Historical Description

Moab was an ancient kingdom located east of the Dead Sea, in the area of present-day Jordan. The Moabites were a Semitic people who settled there as early as the 2nd millennium BC. Moab is frequently mentioned in the Bible, both as a neighbor and occasional adversary of Israel. The kingdom existed from the Bronze Age through the Iron Age and was politically and culturally closely connected with neighboring peoples. Moab played an important role in trade and was at times under Egyptian and later Assyrian influence. Over time, the territory was incorporated into the kingdom of the Edomites and eventually into the kingdom of Judah.