Saint Jean d'Acre, from the Sea - David Roberts
Archival giclée
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Description
A detailed watercolour by David Roberts depicting the coastal city of Saint Jean d'Acre, captured during his 1839 expedition to the Near East.
David Roberts, a Scottish painter known for his meticulous topographical studies, produced this watercolour during his extensive travels through the Near East. The work captures the coastal fortifications and harbour of Saint Jean d'Acre, a city with a long history of military conflict. Roberts arrived in the region in 1839, documenting the architecture and daily life of the Levant with a precision that appealed to the Victorian fascination with distant lands.
The composition focuses on the foreground, where local vessels are moored in the calm waters. Roberts uses a light, controlled palette to render the hazy atmosphere of the Mediterranean coast. The city walls and minarets appear in the distance, rendered with fine, delicate brushwork that suggests the heat and stillness of the day. His approach avoids dramatic exaggeration, favouring a clear, observational style that documents the scene as he encountered it.
This piece reflects the broader practice of nineteenth-century artists who travelled to document sites of historical and biblical interest. Roberts was particularly skilled at balancing architectural accuracy with the atmospheric conditions of the region. His work provides a visual record of the Levant before the significant urban changes of the twentieth century. The use of watercolour allows for a transparency that mimics the bright, diffused light of the coastal setting, while the placement of the boats creates a sense of scale against the distant city skyline. This print captures the quiet observation that defined Roberts's contribution to British topographical painting.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
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Specific Features
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- Museum-grade giclée printing for rich, fade-resistant colour
- Archival matte fine-art paper, FSC-certified
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Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
Saint Jean d'Acre, from the Sea - David Roberts
Artist Biography
David Roberts
In 1838 he sailed for Egypt and spent the next two years travelling through the Middle East, filling sketchbooks with drawings of temples, mosques, ruins and desert landscapes that almost no British artist had recorded before. To enter the mosques he had to shave off his sideburns, leave his hog-hair brushes behind (the pig being unclean), and wear traditional Arab clothing while he worked. He was one of the first Europeans allowed to paint inside a mosque.
The sketches became The Holy Land, Syria, Idumea, Arabia, Egypt and Nubia, a series of 247 lithograph plates produced in collaboration with the printer Louis Haghe between 1842 and 1849. He funded the project through advance subscriptions, soliciting them personally. Queen Victoria was subscriber number one. Her complete set is still in the Royal Collection.
The lithographs gave Europeans their first detailed visual record of the ancient Near East. They were bought as art, used as reference by scholars, and shaped the Western imagination of Egypt and Palestine for the rest of the century.
His personal life was less composed. His wife Margaret became an alcoholic and in 1831 he sent her back to Scotland to be cared for by friends. He raised their daughter Christine largely alone. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1841, a considerable achievement for a man who had started painting houses, and worked steadily until his death in 1864.
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