Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, March 2008, page 56

Music & Arts

David Roberts’ Benefit at American Task Force on Palestine

	An attendee, Ralph Lowry, compared Roberts’ “Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives” (above) to his own recollection from a 1971 tour of Palestine. “That’s not how it looks anymore,” he said. “Now the view is completely spoiled by construction” (Photo Courtesy Petra Fine Arts).

THE AMERICAN Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) hosted a Dec. 7 benefit at its Washington, DC office featuring George Lintzeris’ collection of watercolors and lithographs by David Roberts. Attendees enjoyed art, conversation and a Lintzeris-led tour of a unique period in art history. Twenty percent of the proceeds from the sale of the paintings were donated to ATFP’s newly established charitable sister organization, American Charities of Palestine, which supports health and educational services in Jerusalem and the West Bank. ATFP was established in 2002 by Ziad Asali, Naila Asali and other key board members as a lobby for the two-state solution in Israel and Palestine.

Lintzeris, the owner of Petra Fine Art in Baltimore, MD, is an expert on the highly acclaimed Scottish 19th century landscape artist. Lintzeris recalled that he was first drawn to Roberts’ art when he caught sight of a reproduction in one of his textbooks of Roberts’ lithograph on the “Temple of Abu Simbel, Egypt.” “His work evokes romanticism, mysticism, and nostalgia,” Lintzeris told his audience. “It brings back scenes of Biblical lands untouched.”

Roberts traveled throughout the Middle East in 1838 and produced a vast number of sketches and paintings that defined Europe’s image of the region. He landed in Alexandria, Egypt, sailing up the Nile to witness Egypt’s spectacular beauties. His tour also took him to Sinai, the Galilee, Lebanon, Damascus, Antioch, Palmyra, Petra, and then to his ultimate objective, the Holy Land.

Not only was Roberts one of the first Europeans to portray the spiritual grandeur of Palestine and the architectural wonders of the Ancient World, he also shaped Westerners’ romantic vision of ancient Egypt, Antioch and Jerusalem. While he toured on sailing ships and camel caravans, after the success of his paintings—as well as technological advances—Europeans soon flocked to the region by the hundreds. Steamships, railroads, hotels and restaurants began catering to the eager pilgrims.

Ironically, Lintzeris noted, the European tourist industry probably accelerated the demise of the historical Middle East the tourists had come to experience.

“Roberts’ work is awe-inspiring and monumental,” said Maria-Stella Gatzoulis, events coordinator of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, who is of Greek extraction. “It brings alive the ancient world that I learned about in my religion and culture.”

Roberts had a gift for finding the most unusual vantage point for executing a landscape or architectural panorama. His other talent, Lintzeris observed, was an extraordinary sensitivity to light. His lithograph of the ruins of the Court of Karnak shows the midday sun varnishing the stones of a fallen pillar scattered across the foreground like a stack of tumbled coins. He sketched Nazareth from one of the surrounding hills, using the slopes of the valley to concentrate light on the ancient town.

However, the Orientalist point of view in his work is undeniable. His panoramas invariably depict a group of brightly costumed Bedouin frolicking in the foreground like local color extras in a culturally insensitive Hollywood movie of the 1930s.

The grace of Roberts’ work evokes a sense of peace. Like the serene, quiet light that bathes the men, temples and mountains, Roberts’ art parlays the intangible sense of peace that pervaded the region before politics shaped the current state of affairs.

For more information visit <www.petrafineart.net> or phone (410) 235-1696.

 —Zainab Cheema