DAVID ROBERTS (St0ckbridge, Edinburgh, 1796 -... Lot 67

DAVID ROBERTS (St0ckbridge, Edinburgh, 1796 - London, 1864). "Album." Pencil on paper (x14). Features provenance inscription; Hickson Newcastle, Staffordshire." Some of the drawings show light rust stains except for two drawings where the stains have affected the composition. Signed all but two of the drawings. Measurements: 20 x 16 cm (x14); 31 x 27 x 4 cm (book). This binding collects a set of fourteen pencil drawings by the artist David Roberts. Most of them present landscape scenes taken in a sketchy manner, so it is likely that they are scenes taken from life as the artist's own sketches. In the collection there is also the capture of works featuring characters, also made from this technical perspective. It should be noted that despite the diversity of scenes in the collection, all the drawings have an aesthetic typical of romanticism, with misty landscapes where the sunset is accentuated and the very marked perspectives, typical of the aforementioned aesthetic current. The great relevance of this collection can be appreciated both in the quality of the technique used and in the subject matter, as they define the trajectory of the artist David Roberts, known for his travels and for the visual chronicles he made in them. The influence of Roberts' style was notable in other romantic schools such as the Spanish. In 1833 Roberts met Villamil with whom he constructed the romantic vision of Spain. In fact this prolific relationship crystallized in the exhibition "The Romantic Spain David and Genaro Perez Villamil", which took place at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Madrid), in 2022. David Roberts was a Scottish painter, especially known for his scenes of the Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia, as well as for a prolific series of detailed lithographs of Egypt and the Near East that he produced from sketches he made during long travels through the region (1838-1840). These and his large oil paintings of similar subjects made him a leading Orientalist painter. He was elected a Royal Academician in 1841. He was apprenticed for seven years to a house painter and decorator named Gavin Beugo, his fellow apprentice being David Ramsay Hay. After completing his apprenticeship, Roberts' first paid work came in the summer of 1815, when he moved to Perth to work as a foreman on the redecoration of Scone Palace. His next job was painting sets for James Bannister's circus in North College Street. This was the beginning of his career as a painter and set designer. Roberts left Edinburgh with the circus at the end of the same month and travelled to Carlisle, Newcastle, Hull and York, returning to Edinburgh in January 1817.In 1819, Roberts became a scene painter at the Theatre Royal in Edinburgh. In 1821 he befriended the artist William Clarkson Stanfield, who joined him to paint sets at the Theatre Royal, and Roberts developed his fondness for landscape painting. In 1821, the Fine Arts Institution of Edinburgh accepted three of Roberts' paintings and at Stanfield's suggestion, Roberts also sent three paintings to the Exhibition of Works by Living Artists, held in Edinburgh in 1822. In 1832 he traveled in Spain and Tangier. He returned in late 1833 with a series of sketches which he transformed into attractive and popular paintings. He produced an excellent series of Spanish illustrations for the Landscape Annual of 1836. J. M. W. W. Turner persuaded Roberts to give up scene painting and become a full-time artist. Roberts set sail for Egypt on August 31, 1838, a few years after Owen Jones. His intention was to produce drawings that he could later use as the basis for paintings and lithographs that he would sell to the public. Upon his return to Britain, Roberts worked with lithographer Louis Haghe from 1842 to 1849 to produce the lavishly illustrated plates of The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt, and Nubia, originally published as Sketches in the Holy Land and Syria, 1842-1849 and Egypt & Nubia series. In 1841 he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy.