Approach of the Simoon, Desert of Gizeh

The most sought-after print from David Roberts’ monumental Holy Land, Egypt, and Nubia. The Simoon (or Simoom) is a hot dry wind of short duration (usually less than half an hour) that can bring temperatures in excess of 50°C, and humidity below 10%. Roberts’ presentation of the scene, with the looming cloud of sand and dust arching over and obscuring the sun, is doubtless indebted to J. M. W. Turner’s Hannibal Crossing the Alps. Turner was an elder contemporary and supporter of Roberts.

Roberts travelled extensively through the Near East in 1838–39, producing hundreds of sketches which he would later work up into finished drawings and, in some instances, oil paintings, which served as the basis for the lithographs produced by the Dutch lithographer Louis Haghe. The original folio publication in the 1840s was in two formats: 1) The Royal Subscription Edition (RSE), in which all of the tinted lithographs were printed on thin paper mounted to card and hand coloured in watercolour to the specifications of Roberts’ originals. 2) The more plentiful Standard Edition (SE), in which the tinted lithographs were printed directly on thick paper and issued uncoloured, with the option of additional hand-colouring to be added later at the discretion of the purchaser. A few plates, such as the Approach of the Simoon, were polychromatic lithographs, printed in both formats using a multiplicity of stones, though later hand colouring of highlights is often found in these as well.