DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4393#0299
ABOU S1MBEL. 281
comic than has ever beeu seen at Abou Simbel before or
since.
Rameses' appetite for coffee was prodigious. lie con-
sumed I know not how many gallons a day. Our cook
stood aghast at the demand made upon his stores. Never
before had he been called upon to provide for a guest
whose month measured three feet and a half in width.
Still, the result justified the expenditure. The coffee
proved a capital match for the sandstone ; and though it
was not possible wholly to restore the uniformity of the
original surface, we at least succeeded in obliterating those
ghastly splotches, which for so many years have marred
this beautiful face as with the unsightlincss of leprosy.
What with boating, fishing, lying in wait for crocodiles,
cleaning the colossus, and filling reams of thin letter
paper to friends at home, we got through the first week
quickly enough—the painter and the writer working hard,
Meanwhile, in their respective ways; the painter on his big
canvas in front of the temple; the writer shifting her little
tent as she listed. •
Now, although the most delightful occupation in life is
undoubtedly sketching, it must be admitted that the
sketcher at Abou Simbel works under difficulties. Fore-
most among these comes the difficulty of position. The
great temple stands within about twenty-five yards of the
brink of the bank, and the lesser temple within as many
feet; so that to get far enough from one's subject is simply
impossible. The present writer sketched the small temple
from the deck of the dahabeeyah ; there being no point of
view obtainable on shore.
Next comes the difficulty of color. Everything, except
the sky and the river, is yellow—yellow, that is to say,
''with a difference"; yellow ranging through every grada-
tion of orange, maize, ,apricot, gold and buff. The mount-
ains are sandstone ; the temples are sandstone; the sand-
slope is powdered sandstone from the sandstone desert.
In all these objects, the scale of color is necessarily the
same. Even the shadows, glowing with reflected light,
give back tempered repetitions of the dominant hue.
Hence it follows that he who strives, however humbly, to
reproduce the facts of the scene before him, is compelled,
oon gre, vial ijrc, to execute what some of our young
painters would nowadays call a symphony in yellow.
comic than has ever beeu seen at Abou Simbel before or
since.
Rameses' appetite for coffee was prodigious. lie con-
sumed I know not how many gallons a day. Our cook
stood aghast at the demand made upon his stores. Never
before had he been called upon to provide for a guest
whose month measured three feet and a half in width.
Still, the result justified the expenditure. The coffee
proved a capital match for the sandstone ; and though it
was not possible wholly to restore the uniformity of the
original surface, we at least succeeded in obliterating those
ghastly splotches, which for so many years have marred
this beautiful face as with the unsightlincss of leprosy.
What with boating, fishing, lying in wait for crocodiles,
cleaning the colossus, and filling reams of thin letter
paper to friends at home, we got through the first week
quickly enough—the painter and the writer working hard,
Meanwhile, in their respective ways; the painter on his big
canvas in front of the temple; the writer shifting her little
tent as she listed. •
Now, although the most delightful occupation in life is
undoubtedly sketching, it must be admitted that the
sketcher at Abou Simbel works under difficulties. Fore-
most among these comes the difficulty of position. The
great temple stands within about twenty-five yards of the
brink of the bank, and the lesser temple within as many
feet; so that to get far enough from one's subject is simply
impossible. The present writer sketched the small temple
from the deck of the dahabeeyah ; there being no point of
view obtainable on shore.
Next comes the difficulty of color. Everything, except
the sky and the river, is yellow—yellow, that is to say,
''with a difference"; yellow ranging through every grada-
tion of orange, maize, ,apricot, gold and buff. The mount-
ains are sandstone ; the temples are sandstone; the sand-
slope is powdered sandstone from the sandstone desert.
In all these objects, the scale of color is necessarily the
same. Even the shadows, glowing with reflected light,
give back tempered repetitions of the dominant hue.
Hence it follows that he who strives, however humbly, to
reproduce the facts of the scene before him, is compelled,
oon gre, vial ijrc, to execute what some of our young
painters would nowadays call a symphony in yellow.