Page 90 - Pierre Durand Collection Including Chinese Art and Porcelain Sothebys Jan 27 2022

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LUIGI MAYER (1755-1803 LONDON) Luigi Mayer was a watercolorist and draftsman of German origin, who
Arab men discovering an ancient tomb; Arab men discovering the became well known for his accurate depictions of people and sites in the
interior of a pyramid Near East. In 1786 Mayer was employed by the British ambassador to
Constantinople, Sir Robert Ainslie, and traveled with him to the Eastern
with inscription ‘Sepulchral Chamber in the Great Pyramid, built of large
blocks of red granite, a sarcophagus in the background’ (on a separate piece of Mediterranean. After their return to England, between 1801 and 1810, many
paper) (ii) of Mayer’s watercolors were translated into print and published with great
graphite, watercolor, bodycolor success. The first of these compositions was translated into print, with
18Ω x 15¿ in. (47 x 38.4 cm) (i); 16¡ x 15 in. (41.5 x 38.2 cm) (ii) 2 (2) changes in the figures, by Thomas Milton, and published in 1801 in Views
in Egypt, Palestine and Other Parts of the Ottoman Empire (volume 1, plate
$6,000-8,000
6). The dramatic effects of the torches lit in the darkness of the pyramid
powerfully convey the sense of wonder and mystery that the Egyptian
antiquities evoked in the public of the time.
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