Between the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 20th, thousands of drawings and watercolours have been created in Egypt by gifted artists. This is also a period in which egyptian monuments have undergone spectacular transformations : while some were excavated and restored, others were destroyed altogether. Later on, a number of them had to be dismantled and rebuilt on new grounds.

 

Lycaons has produced a new book dealing with this subject. L’ÉGYPTE DESSINÉE illustrates it with views selected among the most telling of 19th century artwork, side-by-side with views of the same sites as they stand today, drawn by Bruno Cassiers.

 

Part of the artwork has been selected from well-known publications, such as Description de l’Egypte or David Roberts’ Egypt and Nubia; some in lesser known publications, such as Girault de Prangey’s, Robert T. Kelly’s and Walter Tyndale’s.

 

A number of illustrations are taken from the watercolour collections held in the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and the National Maritime Museum, amongst others.

 

Some previously unpublished drawings from the Robert Hay manuscripts kept at the British Library are here reproduced for the first time.The book also contains maps, a bibliography, a chronology of 166 artists active in Egypt between 1737 and 1934, and a list of 1774 views created by them in that period. Please note that the texts are in French - no English version exists at present.