View on the Nile looking towards the pyramids of Dashour [Dahshûr]and Saccara [Saqqârah]. 1846 - 1849

David Roberts created this watercolour view on the Nile, looking towards the pyramids, sometime in the mid-19th century. Roberts was a Scottish painter known for his meticulously detailed scenes from Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. This work is a product of British Orientalism, a cultural movement that exoticized the East. The pyramids are framed as distant monuments of an ancient civilisation, while the activity on the river is the focus. Note the figures on the boats, and the implied hierarchy between the Westerners and the Egyptian boatmen. This composition subtly reinforces the Western gaze, turning Egypt into a picturesque landscape for European consumption. When interpreting such works, historians delve into travelogues, colonial archives, and studies of Orientalism. These resources help us understand how cultural exchange can perpetuate power dynamics, and they remind us that art is always made within a specific social and institutional context.