DAVID ROBERTS RA (BRITISH 1796-1864)
Entrance to Nablous
hand coloured lithograph by Louis Haghe
Published, London (20 Threadneedle Street) F.G. Moon 1842
25 x 34 cm

David Roberts RA (24 October 1796 – 25 November 1864) was a Scottish painter. He is especially known for a prolific series of detailed lithograph prints of the Holy Land and Egypt that he produced during the 1840s from sketches he made during long tours of the region (1838–1840). These, and his large oil paintings of similar subjects, made him a prominent Orientalist painter.

J.M.W. Turner managed to persuade him to abandon scene painting and devote himself to becoming a true artist. Roberts set sail for Egypt in 1838. His intent was to produce drawings that he could later use as the basis for the paintings and lithographs to sell to the public. Egypt was much in vogue at this time, and travellers, collectors and lovers of antiquities were keen to buy works inspired by the East or depicting the great monuments of ancient Egypt.

Roberts worked with lithographer Louis Haghe from 1842 to 1849 to produce the illustrated plates of the Sketches in the Holy Land and Syria, 1842-1849 and Egypt & Nubia series.