Notable sales

Roberts and his companions arrived at Sidon on the 27 April 1839 but because they had come from Jerusalem, where there had been an outbreak of plague, they were quarantined and thus prevented from entering the town. However, after an uncomfortable night, where they had been forced to pitch their tents in a thunderstorm, they explored their surroundings. Roberts was impressed, noting in his journal that ‘Sidon is beautifully situated on a bold promontory which is connected with the finely cultivated plain. The scenery around is rich & luxuriant and the plain is almost a continuation of orchards…’ Despite being closely guarded he was ‘determined to sketch’ and he wrote that he ‘got one or two views of an ancient fort connected to the land by a bridge of several arches, which has at one time been guarded in the middle by a strong tower' (MS Eastern Journal, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh).

 

The present watercolour was drawn after Roberts returned to England from his eleven month journey to Egypt and the Holy Land (August 1838 to July 1839), and it was this image that was lithographed for his ground-breaking series: The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia. Roberts returned to the subject of Sidon, this time working in oils, in both 1854 and 1858. The latter work was exhibited at the British Institution and was sold at Sotheby’s on 23 April 2013.

 

The present watercolour’s provenance is distinguished. It was among the group of works that were acquired directly from Roberts between 1843 and 1845 by Lord Francis Egerton, later 1st Earl Ellesmere. Egerton was an important patron of the arts who had travelled to the Holy Land in 1839. Later it belonged to Sir John Buchanan-Jardine, 3rd Bt. of Castlemilk, Scotland, who owned a significant collection of watercolours by Roberts, including views of Tyre, Petra, Suez, Jerusalem and Ascalon. 

The present work was lithographed by Louis Haghe for The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt & Nubia, in 1843 (pl. 73, with the title: Sarda Ancient Sidon) and in 1855 (pl. 73, with the title: Sidon).