Daniel Havell after Henry Salt.

View of Grand Cairo.

29 x 21

A magnificent, panoramic view of Cairo engraved by Daniel Havel (with additional etching and aquatinting by Samuel Rawle) after the painting by Henry Salt and published in London in 1809.

It is hard to imagine the impact that prints such as this would have had on people in England at the beginning of the C19th. To be given a glimpse of quite how exotic and ornate the city of Cairo was, would have been both educational and inspirational. Since its foundation in 1753, The British Museum in Bloomsbury had been acquiring and displaying artefacts from across the classical world but very few people would have had the opportunity to travel to the countries of origin. Here, in all its splendour, we have the majestic city of Cairo replete with mosques and minarets, camels and palms.

Henry Salt (1780 - 1827) led a fascinating life as an artist, diplomat, traveller and antiquarian. He trained in London but from 1805 embarked upon a series of extraordinary journeys that would take him all over the world. From 1815 onwards he was appointed the British Consul General in Cairo and it was during his time in Egypt that he produced his finest work. He became an obsessive collector of artefacts and sponsored several archaeological excavations at both Thebes and Abu Simnel. Many of his acquisitions ended up being either donated or sold to both the British Museum and the Louvre. Daniel Havell was born in 1785 and spent his working life in London where he engraved, mostly in aquatint, after his contemporaries. This view of Cairo is of exceptional quality and represent the most accomplished period of his career.

£1350