David Roberts (painter)
David Roberts | |
---|---|
Born | Stockbridge near Edinburgh, Scotland | 24 October 1796
Died | 25 November 1864 London, England | (aged 68)
Nationality | Scottish |
Movement | Orientalism |
Elected | Royal Academician |
David Roberts
Early life
David Roberts was born at Edinburgh in Scotland.[1] Apprenticed for seven years to a house painter and decorator named Gavin Beugo, his fellow apprentice being David Ramsay Hay, who became a lifelong friend.[2] During this time he studied art in the evenings. After his apprenticeship was complete, Roberts's first paid job came in the summer of 1815, when he moved to Perth to serve as foreman for the redecoration of Scone Palace.[3] Roberts returned in the spring of 1816 and lived with his parents while looking for work.
His next job was to paint scenery for James Bannister's circus on North College Street.
For the first few months of 1817, Roberts worked as the stage designer's assistant at the Pantheon Theatre, Edinburgh, a new joint venture between Bannister and an Italian musician named Corri.[7][8] However the Pantheon was a financial failure and closed in May 1817, putting Roberts out of work.[8] He reluctantly returned to house painting, working on the mansion house of Abercairny, near Perth, designed by Gillespie Graham. Although he was working from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. he took the opportunity to sketch in the woods around the mansion in the evening.[9] He followed this up with a stint painting imitation wood and marble at a mansion at Condie, near Bridge of Earn, in Perthshire. At the urging of his parents, Roberts returned to Edinburgh in January 1818, where he took employment with John Jackson, a decorative painter.[9] Working for Jackson during 1818, Roberts decorated Lord Lauderdale's Dunbar House (known later as Lauderdale House) and then the library of Craigcrook Castle for Lord Jeffrey, who had recently leased the property.[4][9]
In 1818, the Pantheon Theatre reopened in Edinburgh.[10] Initially, a company from London with their own scene painters was in residence, but after they left, Roberts was able to get work from Corri as a scene painter. While Corri offered Roberts the position on 25 July 1818, he was already committed to house-painting work for Jackson and was unable to start at the Pantheon until the winter season. As there was no separate painting room, Roberts had to paint sets directly on the stage, which was occupied by rehearsals during the day and performances in the evening. Therefore, Roberts generally began work after the evening production had finished, working through the night.[11] Roberts's work was noticed by the stage-manager, Mr. Monro. After the Pantheon closed, Monro moved on to the Theatre Royal, Glasgow, where he arranged for Roberts to be hired as a principal scene-painter.[12]
In 1819, Roberts became the scene painter at the Theatre Royal in Edinburgh (having at this time James Ballantine as his apprentice).[13] There Roberts met the Scottish actress Margaret McLachlan, said to be the illegitimate daughter of a Highland gypsy girl and a clan chief.[2] They married in 1820, "for pure love". Although the marriage did not last long, it produced Roberts' only daughter, Christine, who was born in 1821.
Although he was making a living from scene painting, it was around this time that Roberts began to produce oil paintings seriously. In 1821 he became friends with the artist
Move to London
In 1822 the
A miniature by Roberts from this time shows Margaret as a delicate woman with blonde ringlets, holding the smiling three-year-old Christine. But Roberts' family life was not as idyllic as this picture suggests: Margaret had become an alcoholic, and eventually, in 1831, Roberts sent her back to Scotland to be cared for by friends. Roberts may have burned some letters from this period in shame at his wife's drinking problem, but he was unusually frank in a letter to a friend, David Ramsay Hay. Roberts and Hay had been an apprentices together, and Hay had been seeing a mistress since his own wife had started drinking.
"If you do not know our cases are almost parallel. Yours is not as bad as mine, having some consolation. The state of my nerves is such I can scarcely write. But thank God she leaves tomorrow—I hope for ever."[2]
In 1824, he exhibited another view of
While he built his reputation as a
During the second part of the 1820s, and in addition to English and Scottish scenes, Roberts painted views of prominent buildings in France and the Low Countries including Amiens, Caen, Dieppe, Rouen, Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent, sometimes making several paintings of the same scene with only minor variations.[16]
By 1829 he was working full-time as a fine artist. That year, he exhibited the Departure of the Israelites from Egypt, in which his style first became apparent.[14] In 1831, the Society of British Artists elected him as their president.
Travel to Spain
In 1832 he traveled in Spain and
In London he made the acquaintance of artists such as Edward Thomas Daniell and John Linnell, who frequented Daniel's house.
Travel to Egypt and the Holy Land
Roberts made a long tour in Egypt, Nubia, the Sinai, the Holy Land, Jordan and Lebanon. Throughout, he produced a vast collection of drawings and watercolour sketches.
Muhammad Ali Pasha received Roberts in Alexandria on 16 May 1839, shortly before his return to the UK. He later reproduced this scene, apparently from memory, in Volume 3 of Egypt & Nubia.
Return to Britain
Upon Roberts's return to Edinburgh in 1840, his fellow-artist,
On his return to Britain, Roberts worked with
Later life
In 1851, and again in 1853, Roberts visited Italy, painting the
His last volume of illustrations, Italy, Classical, Historical and Picturesque, was published in 1859. In 1839 he was elected an associate and in 1841 a full member of the
He was buried at West Norwood Cemetery.[19]
Selected works
Paintings
- Departure of the Israelites (1829)
- The Great Staircase, Stafford House (1832), UK Government Art Collection[20]
- Interior of Seville Cathedral (1834)
- A View in Cairo (1840), The Royal Collection, Windsor Castle
- The Temple at Dendera (1841)
- The Gateway to the Great Temple at Baalbec (1841)
- Ruins of the Great Temple at Karnak, in Upper Egypt (1845)[21]
- The Destruction of Jerusalem (1850)
- The Church of the Jesuits, View on the Grand Canal, Venice (1854), Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, New Haven, Connecticut
- Edinburgh from the Calton Hill (1858)
- Santa Maria, Venice(1862) Sheffield Galleries & Museums Trust
- Street in Cairo (Royal Holloway Collection, University of London)
- Pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Royal Holloway Collection, London)
Prints
- Picturesque Sketches in Spain (London, 1835–36)
- The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia (London 1842–1849, originally as The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea and Arabia and Egypt and Nubia, in 2x3 volumes.) Link to Images
- Cities of North Africa (London 1852)
Journals
- Roberts, David, Record Book, 1829–1864, unpublished manuscript, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven.
- Roberts, David, Eastern Journal, 1838–1839, unpublished manuscript, National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh.
Gallery
-
The Great Sphinx (and) Pyramids of Gizeh (Giza) 17 July 1839
-
Church of the Holy Sepulchre Jerusalem. Lithograph by Louis Haghe from an original by David Roberts
-
Edinburgh from the Calton Hill (1858). Oil on canvas
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Approach of the Simoom--Desert of Gizeh. Lithograph by Louis Haghe from an original by David Roberts
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Obelisk at Alexandria Commonly Called Cleopatra's Needle. Lithograph by Louis Haghe from an original by David Roberts
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The Hypaethral Temple at Philae called the Bed of Pharaoh. Lithograph by Louis Haghe from an original by David Roberts
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Departure of the Israelites (1829). Oil on canvas
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Pilgrimage to Jerusalem
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Thebes Dec. 4th, 1838 Lithograph by Louis Haghe from an original by David Roberts
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Convent of St Saba 4 April 1839. Lithograph by Louis Haghe from an original by David Roberts
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The Houses of Parliament from Millbank by David Roberts, 1861
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The Holy Tree, Meterea. Lithograph by Louis Haghe from an original by David Roberts
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Interior of Amiens Cathedral, c. 1827. Princeton University Art Museum
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Grave of David Roberts in West Norwood Cemetery
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Part of the Hall of Columns at Kanak Seen from Without. Mougins Museum of Classical Art
-
View from Under the Portico of Dayr-el-Medeeneh, Thebes. Mougins Museum of Classical Art
See also
Notes
- ^ Portraits of Men of Eminence in Literature, Science, and Art, with Biographical Memoirs, Volume 1, by Edwards, Ernest, and Lovell Reeve, 1863.
- ^ a b c d Mansfield 2006.
- ^ a b c Ballantine 1866, p. 7.
- ^ a b c Grant 1880, p. 78.
- ^ Ballantine 1866, p. 8.
- ^ a b Ballantine 1866, pp. 8–10.
- ^ Caledonian Mercury & 23 January 1817, p. 1.
- ^ a b Ballantine 1866, pp. 10–11.
- ^ a b c Ballantine 1866, p. 11.
- ^ Caledonian Mercury & 27 August 1818, p. 3.
- ^ Ballantine 1866, pp. 11–13.
- ^ Ballantine 1866, pp. 13–14.
- ^ Donnelly 1981.
- ^ a b c d e f g Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 23 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 403.
- ^ Artist Summary: David Roberts (1796–1864), Artfact, retrieved 8 November 2007
- ^ Ballantine 1866, pp. 24–40.
- ^ Gilbert 1901, p. 112.
- ^ Portraits of Men of Eminence in Literature, Science, and Art, with Biographical Memoirs, Volume 1, by Edwards, Ernest, and Lovell Reeve, 1863.
- ^ Roberts, David "The Page of the Dead"
- ^ "Culture.gov.uk". Gac.culture.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 3 September 2009. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
- ^ "Lot 74: David Roberts, R.A (Scottish, 1796–1864) – Christie's". Artfact. Archived from the original on 6 February 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
Sources
- "Corri's New Pantheon". Caledonian Mercury. No. 14847. Edinburgh. 23 January 1817. p. 1 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- "The Pantheon is to open...". Caledonian Mercury. No. 15125. Edinburgh. 27 August 1818. p. 3 – via British Newspaper Archive.
- Ballantine, James (1866), The Life of David Roberts R.A., compiled from Roberts's journals and other sources with etchings and pen-and-ink sketches by the artist, Edinburgh
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Donnelly, Michael (1981), Glasgow Stained Glass: A Preliminary Study, Glasgow Museums and Art Galleries, ISBN 9780902752122
- Gilbert, W.M. (1901), Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century, Edinburgh, p. 112
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Grant, James (1880), "VIII: Valley of the Water of Leith", Old and New Edinburgh, vol. 5, Cassell, p. 78
- Guiterman, H.; Llewellyn, B. (1986), David Roberts, London: Barbican Art Gallery
- Mansfield, Susan (8 July 2006), "The big draw", The Scotsman, retrieved 8 November 2007
- Lee, Sidney, ed. (1896). . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 48. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
- Matyjaszkiewicz, Krystyna. "Roberts, David (1796–1864)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23746. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Sim, Katharine (1984), David Roberts R.A. 1796-1864. A Biography, London (pub. Quartet)
{{citation}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
External links
- 111 artworks by or after David Roberts at the Art UK site
- Darnley Fine Art has a full set of lithographs by David Roberts
- The Library of Congress has images of and by David Roberts
- ArtCyclopedia lists many public collections with works by Roberts
- Artist David Roberts and Near Eastern Archaeology an article by Dr. Patrick Hunt
- Hindoo and Mahommedan Buildings., a painting engraved in colour by George Baxter for Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1835, with a poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon.
- The Great Mosque & The Alcazar, or Dungeon of the Inquisition, Cordova, on the Guadalquiver., a painting engraved by Thomas Higham for Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1840 with a posthumous poetical illustration by Letitia Elizabeth Landon.