Vue de Béthanie

In April 1882 the artist travelled to Palestine. This view of Bethany - a village east of Jerusalem, where the episode of the resurrection of Lazarus is thought to have taken place - is one of those rare watercolours executed by Daras. The medieval village with terraces and whitewashed houses, surrounded by olive trees and dominated by the ruins a crossed fortification, had at that time only one hundred inhabitants. Daras is here very faithful to the site of the tomb of Lazarus - a place of pilgrimage.