Description
Trained in Rome, Mayer was long employed by Sir Robert Ainslie, the British ambassador to the Ottoman court. The two traveled through Sicily, Turkey, and Egypt, where Mayer made drawings of important sites before accompanying his patron to England in 1794. This watercolor describes Muslim tombs at Rosetta, a town on the Nile between Cairo and Alexandria, and was reproduced in aquatint in Views in Egypt, a set of forty-eight prints published by Robert Bowyer in 1801. Characteristically, the artist enhances accurate architectural information with evocative detail, and shows women collecting water near turbaned men who guard the tombs. Such images informed European viewers about contemporary Egypt. Medium: graphite, watercolor, and gouache.
Image Licence
CC0 1.0
Image Credit
Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts
Location
Rosetta, Rasheed, Markaz Rasheed, Egypt
Country
Egypt
Tags
Category
Buildings & Architecture
