Untitled (A Scene on the Nile with Arabs and Camels in the foreground, and the Pyramids)

Paris-based American artist Edwin Lord Weeks was a late Orientalist who earned fame and awards for his realistic paintings of the East even though he was one of the last few western artists to travel on painting expeditions to Morocco, Egypt, Persia and India. His book, From the Black Sea through Persia and India, remains an interesting read even more than a century after its publication. In this watercolour, he captures a serene moment of rest for some travellers and their camels as they relax after a weary day by the banks of the ancient landscape of river Nile.