The Temple of Dendera, Upper Egypt

David Roberts' visit to the Near East in 1838 to 1839 was of crucial importance to his career. He was already acclaimed as a painter of European topographical and architectural views but he needed new subject matter and was one of the first British artists to visit Egypt. The sketches he made there and in the Holy Land gave him enough subjects for the rest of his life. At Dendera he noted the temple's good state of preservation in his diary.However, the faces on the columns of the portico had eroded and he embellished them in this painting for greater dramatic impact.