View on the Nile

Artist Nathaniel Hone (1831 - 1917)

Datec. 1892

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions58.7 x 100.7 cm

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineCollection & image © Hugh Lane Gallery. Lane Bequest, 1913.

Object number107

DescriptionIn late 1891 Hone and his wife Magdalen embarked on a cruise that took them to Venice, Greece and Egypt. A two-week boat journey down the Nile brought the couple to Luxor in February 1892. During his Egyptian journey Hone made many watercolour sketches, and three oils are extant: North Africa and The Sphinx, both in the collection of the National Gallery of Ireland, and this painting of the Nile. Hone noted the presence of local men offering donkey and camel rides to tourists. A boy took charge of him and kept the flies away when he was painting. Hone painted several watercolours of the view from Luxor, across the river Nile towards the bare pink mountain known as Cime d'Occident. This was a view that had fascinated many artists, including Charles Gleyre, 1835, Meurnier, 1854, Edward Lear, 1857, Frederick Leighton, 1869, and Henry Brockman, 1891, and the photographer John B. Greene. In this canvas Hone includes the figures of two Arab men with their camel and donkey on the near bank. The group, though indicating areas of pentimenti, is deftly drawn. A third figure is partially visible emerging from the sand bank and may be part of a previous compositional arrangement. Hone brilliantly evokes the warm, rosy light which suffuses the landscape: pinks, pale blues, violets and golds in the mountain, sky and reflections in the river, to create a tranquil, dream-like mood. Horseman on the Bank of the River Nile, Egypt, 1892 (National Gallery of Ireland 3400) is a preparatory watercolour and pencil drawing for View on the Nile, though the arrangement of standing figures and man on a donkey differs from the finished painting here. (From: The Collection Revealed, Nathaniel Hone, p. 14)

This is a river scene depicting the Nile in Egypt. In the immediate foreground are a group of figures and two camels resting on a flat hill close to the river. The river covers the central area of the painting. There are low mountains stretching across the middle distance: these majestically curve down into the river on the left. The sky is a mixture of pale blue, pink and brown and is reflected in the river water.

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