{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O137352"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O137352/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BT5050/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2008BT5050/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2008BT5050","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O137352/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O137352","accessionNumber":"SD.82","objectType":"Watercolour","titles":[{"title":"Principal range of tombs","type":"assigned by artist"},{"title":"Petra","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"Bartlett was a prolific topographical artist who travelled extensively in search of new and interesting subjects for his drawings. He visited North Africa and the Near East seven times, and made several other trips in Britain and Europe, as well as North America. Popular demand for travel books was high during the 1830s and 1840s, and Bartlett contributed illustrations to several of them, including about a dozen written by himself. \r\nThis watercolour resulted from his visit to Petra in November 1845, which he reached from Aqaba, having crossed Sinai from Cairo. It was engraved for Bartlett's account of his journey, Forty Days in the Desert.\r\n The 'marvellous and romantic singularity of this wonderful region', as Bartlett described Petra in his book, inspired an unusually detailed watercolour that shows well his habitual use of pale coloured washes for the landscape, with ink outlines and denser pigment to give emphasis to the figures. \r\nPetra (in Jordan), the legendary Nabataean capital, was rediscovered for the West by the Swiss explorer Jean Louis Burckhardt in 1812. Since then, its remote situation and curiously carved rock tombs have fascinated westerners. Several artists during the nineteenth century, including David Roberts, William Bartlett and Edward Lear, made the difficult and often dangerous journey to the ancient city","physicalDescription":"Watercolour drawing","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Bartlett, William Henry","id":"A19744"},"association":{"text":"painter","id":"x36959"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"watercolour","id":"x33202"}],"techniques":[{"text":"watercolour drawing","id":"x37878"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Ink, water- and bodycolour over pencil heightened with white","categories":[{"text":"Paintings","id":"THES48917"}],"styles":[{"text":"British School","id":"x30967"},{"text":"Orientalism","id":"x31272"}],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2008BT5050"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLD","id":"THES49658"},"free":"","case":"SCX","shelf":"9","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"watercolour","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Petra","id":"x40858"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"AAT54216"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1845-1848","earliest":"1845-01-01","latest":"1848-12-31"},"association":{"text":"painted","id":"AAT54216"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased with the assistance of the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Art Fund, Shell International and the Friends of the V&A","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"22.3","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"35.9","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[{"content":"Inscribed Petra and with note; and on the back with title","inscriber":{"name":{"text":"","id":""},"association":{"text":"","id":""}},"date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"description":"","interpretation":"","language":"","medium":"","method":"","position":"","script":"","translation":"","transliteration":"","type":"","note":""}],"objectHistory":"According to Rodney Searight: Bt. from P. Heathcote-Williams, March 1975   £120.'\r\nPossibly in Bartlett's  studio sale 29.1.1855 (160), bt. White","historicalContext":"Illustrated in W H  Bartlett, Desert, 1848, facing p.134, engraved by J. Cousen.\r\nBartlett visited Petra in October/November 1845.","briefDescription":"Watercolour, `Principal range of tombs' [Petra], 1845-8, by William Henry Bartlett","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Searight, Rodney and Scarce, Jennifer M., <i>A Middle Eastern journey : artists on their travels from the collection of Rodney Searight,</i> Talbot Rice Art Centre, 1980","id":"AUTH351213"},"details":"","free":""},{"reference":{"text":"Khatib, Hisham et al., <i>On the banks of the Jordan : British nineteenth century painters</i>, Jordan : National Press, 1986","id":"AUTH354417"},"details":"3","free":""}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Petra","id":"x40858"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["SD.82"],"accessionNumberNum":"82","accessionNumberPrefix":"SD","accessionYear":null,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-16","recordCreationDate":"2007-07-13","availableToBook":false}}