Cliffs at Deir el Bahri, Egypt
Original title: Cliffs at Deir el Bahri, Egypt
kurzbeschreibung
During his 1890–91 trip to Egypt, John Singer Sargent painted these rocky cliffs near Deir el-Bahri on the bank of the Nile. Warm earth tones fill this horizontal landscape study.
Description
Steep rock faces in brown and orange dominate the foreground, their shifting shadows and textures rendered in fine detail. Beyond them, a stretch of the Nile with gentle ripples and a blue sky comes into view. The light feels soft and diffuse, as if from early morning or late afternoon. The layout is broad, with the cliffs holding the eye most of all.
Context
Between 1890 and 1891, Sargent traveled through Egypt and made several landscape studies there. Deir el-Bahri, an ancient temple complex on the west bank of Luxor, lies close to the cliffs shown here. In this period the artist stepped back from portrait commissions and devoted himself more to oil sketches made on his journeys.
Impact
The warm earth tones and soft light give the landscape a quiet, natural mood. With no human figures and the rock forms emphasized, the grandeur of nature comes to the fore.
Technique
Oil on canvas. Sargent used soft areas of color and combined realistic rendering with impressionistic elements to capture the light and surfaces of the cliffs.
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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)