Felicity Herring
14 June 2023
Synopsis
In 1838 David Roberts, the son of an Edinburgh cobbler, travelled up the Nile as far as Abu Simbel, then back to Cairo. He was the first western artist to record the great statues of Rameses II, the Temple of Amun and the statues of Amenhotep III. He then travelled from Cairo across the Sinai desert to the Holy Land. He went to Jerusalem, Nazareth, Tyre and Baalbec and many more places. His paintings of Petra were the first that Europeans had seen of this wonder of the ancient world. David Roberts’ paintings of his epic journey influenced travellers for many generations.
CV
Felicity went back to university as a mature student to do a MA in Fine Art Valuation at Southampton, writing her dissertation on the paintings of Nelson’s battles. With a particular interest in 19th century history and art, she has been an Arts Society lecturer since 2007 and enjoys presenting talks to a variety of audiences around the UK.