Plate 249 The Ghawazee Dancing Girls, Cairo - After David Roberts RA

David Roberts was waiting for confirmation on when he could go to Jerusalem whilst he was staying in Cairo. On the 26th January he was was invited to dinner by John Pell who agreed to accompany the artist as far as Petra. The evening was enlivened by dancing girls which Roberts has depicted in this work. However, the days in Cairo had become increasingly tedious despite the fine weather. Fortunately on the 28th January the news came through that the sanitaire corden had been lifted and visitors could now enter the city. Roberts' financial issues had also been solved through a generous loan of forty pounds from Robert Thornburn who was the vice-consul in Alexandria. Eventually on the 6th February final preparations were made to leave Cairo and Roberts and his travelling group commenced for Suez on their way to the Holy City.
 
The drawings and watercolours from this tour of the Holy Land and Egypt were collated together into folios and released over a seven year period by the publisher F.G. Moon from 20 Threadneedle Street London. This lithograph is from the Royal Subscription Edition (1842-1849) with only 500 copies produced per depiction. Louis Haghe (the Belgian engraver and friend of Roberts) worked on all of the lithographs for this series.
 
Medium: Original Royal Subscription Edition, half-plate hand-coloured lithograph on thick woven paper. 
 
Inscribed on lithograph l.l. 'Dancing girls at Cairo', l.r. 'David Roberts R.A. L Haghe, lith' 24.5 x 34.6 cm (picture size), mounted.
 
Half Plate 249.

Condition report: the lithograph is in excellent condition. There are a couple of marks on the mount as shown in the photographs.