DOI Heft:
No. 31 (October, 1896)
DOI Artikel:Buckman, Percy: Egypt as a sketching ground
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17295#0050
Egypt as a Sketching Ground
traveller in search of
the picturesque, to see
Egypt. The streets
of old Cairo are, of
course, most pictur-
esque and full of
colour, but one recog-
nises at every turn
corners which strongly
remind one of the
work of this or that
brother brush, of
whose methods of
handling it is neces-
sary to disabuse one's
/ mind in order to do
work of any originality.
on the road to the town by percy buckman Every traveller in
Egypt is expected to
^ GYPT AS A SKETCHING ^e *n a ^ever °^ anx^ety to see the numerous monu-
rT)ATmn -n,r r _,TT_,T;r ments of antiquity which are scattered lavishly on
GROUND. BY PERCY BUCK- . , ■ r ^ , ,
the outskirts or the Nile Valley ; but as these ex-
peditions usually take you into the Desert, it is
Dear E.,—Crafty traveller that you best to get over our archaeological cravings as soon
are, it surprises me that you should object to as possible. These monuments are doubtless of
Egypt as a sketching ground on the score of ex- immense interest, and in some cases paintable,
pense. When one piastre (twopence halfpenny) certainly saleable. But it is in the agricultural
will purchase a score of eggs, and a fowl or districts, and especially in the Fayoum and Delta,
a couple of pigeons may be had for the same a district as yet little explored by artists, that the
modest outlay, and duck, snipe and quail for the material is to be found out of which pictures are
trouble of shooting them—surely there must be made—pictures which illustrate the life, customs,
some mistake about the expense ? True, if you and occupations of the people of Egypt in this
take up your abode at a Cairo Hotel, lit up by nineteenth century, or for that matter in any other
electricity and "replete with every modern con- century; for the Arabs seem to have changed but
venience," it will cost you at the rate of a guinea a little since the days of Mahommed, and European
day or thereabouts. But that is not the way, for a innovations are slow to take root even here where
MAN.
57
traveller in search of
the picturesque, to see
Egypt. The streets
of old Cairo are, of
course, most pictur-
esque and full of
colour, but one recog-
nises at every turn
corners which strongly
remind one of the
work of this or that
brother brush, of
whose methods of
handling it is neces-
sary to disabuse one's
/ mind in order to do
work of any originality.
on the road to the town by percy buckman Every traveller in
Egypt is expected to
^ GYPT AS A SKETCHING ^e *n a ^ever °^ anx^ety to see the numerous monu-
rT)ATmn -n,r r _,TT_,T;r ments of antiquity which are scattered lavishly on
GROUND. BY PERCY BUCK- . , ■ r ^ , ,
the outskirts or the Nile Valley ; but as these ex-
peditions usually take you into the Desert, it is
Dear E.,—Crafty traveller that you best to get over our archaeological cravings as soon
are, it surprises me that you should object to as possible. These monuments are doubtless of
Egypt as a sketching ground on the score of ex- immense interest, and in some cases paintable,
pense. When one piastre (twopence halfpenny) certainly saleable. But it is in the agricultural
will purchase a score of eggs, and a fowl or districts, and especially in the Fayoum and Delta,
a couple of pigeons may be had for the same a district as yet little explored by artists, that the
modest outlay, and duck, snipe and quail for the material is to be found out of which pictures are
trouble of shooting them—surely there must be made—pictures which illustrate the life, customs,
some mistake about the expense ? True, if you and occupations of the people of Egypt in this
take up your abode at a Cairo Hotel, lit up by nineteenth century, or for that matter in any other
electricity and "replete with every modern con- century; for the Arabs seem to have changed but
venience," it will cost you at the rate of a guinea a little since the days of Mahommed, and European
day or thereabouts. But that is not the way, for a innovations are slow to take root even here where
MAN.
57