Rhyanon Demery
Head of Sale
Lot 145
Augustus Osborne Lamplough, A.R.A., R.W.S(British, 1877-1930)The Great Temple at Abu Simbel, Egypt
26 February 2020, 13:00 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £9,437.50 inc. premium
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Leo Webster
Senior Specialist
Augustus Osborne Lamplough, A.R.A., R.W.S (British, 1877-1930)
The Great Temple at Abu Simbel, Egypt
signed and indistinctly dated 'A Lamplough 19--'
watercolour
63.5 x 94cm (25 x 37in).
signed and indistinctly dated 'A Lamplough 19--'
watercolour
63.5 x 94cm (25 x 37in).
Footnotes
The present watercolour depicts the Great Temple at Abu Simbel. Both this and The Small Temple being built over 3,200 years ago by Ramesses II as monuments to himself and his queen, Nefertari. For centuries the temples were seemingly forgotten and covered with sand until their rediscovery by Swiss explorer Johann Ludwig Burckhardt (1784-1817) in 1813. It is said that 'Abu Simbel' was the name of the local boy who guided the first re-discoverers to the site, and later this was the name given to the complex.
When the construction of the Aswan Dam began in 1960, it became apparent that the ancient temples would soon be submerged and destroyed by the rising waters of the newly created Lake Nasser. An international fund-raising campaign by UNESCO led to their relocation to higher ground - a highly complex and costly process that was finally completed in 1968. Thus, the present lot shows the original location of the Abu Simbel temples.
Lamplough travelled extensively through Europe, Egypt, the Middle East and North Africa, producing a large number of watercolours documenting these journeys. This work is one of the finest examples of his skill in the medium.