Egypt Painted and Described – R Talbot Kelly (1928)

S$74.00

Egypt Painted and Described – R Talbot Kelly (1928)

S$74.00

Title: Egypt Painted and Described

Author: R. Talbot Kelly

Publisher: A&C Black, 1928.

Condition: Hardcover, no dust jacket . Very good. Covers bright and clean, binding tight. Slight foxing to edges. 240pp, with 32 beautiful colour plates. App. 8″ by 5.5″

Part of A.C. & Black’s series of travel books and pictures. This one features beautiful watercolours of different scenes in early 20th century Egypt.

About the illustrator (from wikipedia):

Robert George Talbot Kelly (1861–1934) was an English orientalist landscape and genre painter, author and illustrator.

In the early 1880s, inspired by the places he saw while on vacation on an ocean cruise ship, Talbot-Kelly decided to take up his father’s profession. He left his employment in 1882, travelled by boat to North Africa, and settled in Egypt in 1883, acquiring a studio in Cairo and becoming fluent in Arabic. He travelled throughout the country, writing about and painting the people and scenes he encountered both in towns and in the desert. He spent a considerable time with the Bedouin tribes who he described and illustrated in his 1902 book, Egypt Painted and Described (A & C Black). As his name became known he also earned an income from private commissions. He stayed in Egypt until 1915 when for reasons of health and age he returned to London – though he continued to paint constantly.

Egypt Painted and Described, his first illustrated travel book, was published in 1902 (by A & C Black), and was an account of his impressions and experiences of that country during his long stay there; an exhibition of his Egyptian views was also held at the Fine Art Society in the same year. His paintings and writing showed a great empathy and respect for local people and culture, especially that of the desert Bedouin Arabs.

Prior to publishing his books on Egypt, Kelly provided illustrations for Von Slatin’s Fire and Sword in the Sudan (1896). He also travelled to Iceland.