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Lot Essay
An exceptional panorama, one of only two similar studies in the archive. It seems likely this image was the basis of the engraving Foüah, sur le Nil, published as plate 95 in Monuments Arabes d' Egypte, de Syrie et d'Asie Mineure, dessinés et mesurés de 1842 à 1845, Paris, 1846 (see illustration).
Fouah or Fuwa, is now a peninsula city on the widest section of the Rosetta (now Rashîd) branch of the Nile. The monuments of both cities date back to the Abbasid dynasty (8th - 10th centuries AD), based in Baghdad and later Samarra, a period when Arabic scholars excelled in arts and sciences and great advances were made in such areas as medical research, navigation and mathematics. The Tales of the Arabian Nights was compiled during this time and, perhaps more prosaically, enormous wealth was created in the Middle East, as it became the centre for world trade.
This panorama, with its skyline of palms and minarets, epitomises the exotic nature of the Orientalist landscape.
Fouah or Fuwa, is now a peninsula city on the widest section of the Rosetta (now Rashîd) branch of the Nile. The monuments of both cities date back to the Abbasid dynasty (8th - 10th centuries AD), based in Baghdad and later Samarra, a period when Arabic scholars excelled in arts and sciences and great advances were made in such areas as medical research, navigation and mathematics. The Tales of the Arabian Nights was compiled during this time and, perhaps more prosaically, enormous wealth was created in the Middle East, as it became the centre for world trade.
This panorama, with its skyline of palms and minarets, epitomises the exotic nature of the Orientalist landscape.