Abu Simbel (1907): Art, History and Details

Abu Simbel (1907) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Henry Roderick Newman (American, 1833–1918).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This watercolor provides a close-up view of the Abu Simbel temples, which were buried in sand until their rediscovery in the 19th century. The American artist Henry Roderick Newman portrayed their architecture in multiple drawings between 1894 and 1913. In this later work, he meticulously layered dots and other marks to capture the tonality of sand and desert light.

Object facts

• Title: Abu Simbel
• Date: 1907
• Creator attribution: Henry Roderick Newman (American, 1833–1918)
• Culture: America
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: watercolor
• Dimensions: Image: 66 x 43 x 1.3 cm (26 x 16 15/16 x 1/2 in.)
• Collection: DR - American 20th Century
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2018.72

Collection credit

Bequest of William Kelly Simpson

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.