Holy Land: Yesterday & Today

David Roberts was born in 1796 at Stockbridge, near Edinburgh, to an extremely humble family. He spent his childhood in total but dignified poverty, which did nothing to prevent him, however, from showing early but remarkable artistic gifts. Gifted with great determination and equal talents, Roberts succeeded in overcoming his humble beginnings, and quickly became one of the most acclaimed artists of the period. An excellent landscape artist, after traveling repeatedly throughout Europe, he set out for Egypt in 1838, and during the first months of the following years, he toured the Sinai Peninsula, Petra, Jerusalem, Palestine, the coast of Lebanon, and Baalbec. The lithographs taken from the sketches he made during that remarkable journey of exploration in the Holy Land, and published in London by Francis Graham Moon between 1842 and 1849, assured him a fame that has lasted to the present day. This volume contains the original plates of the first edition, in large format, arranged for the first time in correct chronological order, with commentary and considerable extracts from Roberts' journal. Each illustration, moreover, is paired with a photograph that depicts the same a century and a half later.