Lot Details
Lot 18
Henry Roderick Newman
American, 1843-1918
Abu Simbel
Signed H. R. Newman, dated March 6 and inscribed as titled (ll)
Watercolor and pencil on paper
26 x 17 inches
Provenance:
Private collection
Elected to membership in the Association for the Advancement of Truth in Art in 1864, Newman was a follower of the truth-to-nature precepts stemming from the writings of John Ruskin. After traveling to Europe in 1870, Newman had the opportunity not only to meet Ruskin, but also to travel with him. The two shared their mutual interest in architecture while visiting several Italian cities. Newman continued his fascination with architectural form during the many winters he spent in Egypt, beginning in 1887, which resulted in the largest body of work by an American artist of the era of the land and its monuments. Living on a large dahabeah (houseboat) on the Nile, Newman created meticulous and often delicately rendered depictions of ancient sites. This image is of the famed façade of the temple of Abu Simbel, featuring two of the four 20-meter high colossi of Rameses II that flanked the entrance of the rock-cut structure. Depicting the statues from below, Newman draws attention to their grand scale and frozen expressions. The sand and rubble at the foot of the statues, the cracks and broken areas in them, and the sculptural fragments on the ground add to the poetic feeling of this grand spectacle lasting through time, while Newman's image provides a historic record of this subject long before the temple was moved to the bank of Lake Nasser.
C The Spanierman Gallery, LLC Collection of American Art
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