David Roberts

The images were produced by Louis Haghe, the best and most prolific lithographer of the time. Originally from Tournai, Belgium, Haghe moved to England before 1825 and established himself as specialist of the hand-tinted lithograph. His sensitive handling of the lithographer's tools imparts a range of tonality and color as well as a sense of the delicacy and spontaneous quality of Roberts's original images. Roberts's plates are among the most popular images of famous sites in the Near East. As John Ruskin wrote they make "true portraiture of scenes of historical and religious interest. They are faithful and laborious beyond any outlines from nature I have ever seen."