Reproductions setup and photography by - Igal Morag

1. Eretz Yisrael’s 19th Century landscape paintings and Today’s Music – “My Beloved Country” by – Munio Emerilio Reproductions setup and photography by - Igal Morag

2. For over 400 years, 1517 - 1917, Eretz-Yisrael was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. The land was desolated, backward, and of little interest to the rest of the World. Toward the 19th century following events unrelated to this presentation, the Ottoman regime opened up and allowed various Christian organizations, which became interested in the Holy-Land, to renovate Churches and build Pilgrim hostels to accommodate the growing number of tourists and pilgrims to Christianity’s holy places; some of these visitors who toured the holy-land reported back their impressions (mostly unfavorable) and its daily life. A notable group among them was a cadre of painters that left a valuable library of landscape paintings, in particular of Jerusalem, and other sites of religious interest and cities, as well as general sceneries of the country and its people. Lately I became occupied with these paintings (mainly in order to prepare large reproductions for decorating various institutions); hence the idea of creating a presentation showing these historic beautiful paintings side-by-side to photos captured by my cameras over the past decades, trying as much as possible to present the same sites and sceneries from the same viewing points… Let’s hit the road:

3. A view of Jerusalem from the top of Mount of Olives Henri Bartlet - 1850. A view of the Old City from Mount of Olives’ slopes David Roberts – 1838. Starting with Jerusalem, various painters used different and similar viewing angles, when I found similar paintings of the same site, I presented them in sequence giving each artist his due credit, later I will give a short synopsis of the painter’s profile, as I was able to find.

4. Current view from Mount of Olives.

5. And at night. The western wall today View of the Old City’s western wall - Fredrick Perlberg – 1880 View of the western wall from Ben-henom valley - H. Bartlet -1850.

6. A view of the Temple Mount from the north – from Omeria school’s window (on the right the Dakduk staircase) The Temple Mount – a look from the north side at the Dome of the Rock – on the right the ‘Dakduk dome’, on the left one can see the inner part of the Gate of Mercy – Henri Bartlet’s painting – 1850.

7. Temple Mount – the Dome of the Rock and the Ascension Dome in front. The Temple Mount – the Dome of the Rock, and in front the Ascension Dome – David Roberts - 1838

8. Via Dolorosa (Latin) or the "Way of Sorrows" Today Hanri Bartlet -1850

9. Today’s view Church of the Holy Sepulchre – Front Fredrick Perlberg - 1880 Henri Bartlet - 1850 David Roberts – 1838

10. The remains of the structures’ base today. Fredrick Perlberg - 1880 pool– David Roberts -- 1838Beit Hasda 1838Beit Zeta pool- David Roberts - Beit Hasda and Beit Zeta pools, are couple of sheep watering holes, built during Solomon First Temple; in later years various religious structures were built there, leaving impressive remains after their destruction.

11. Silwan/Siloah pool (at the end of the Siloam/Shiloah tunnel) as painted by Henry Bartlet –1850.

12. Latest photo update – 2011 - by a friend (Uri Tal) – The site was cleared, from the accumulated rubbish and kept clean by the municipality. Till recently it was a dirty junkyard next to Jaffa gate. This is a wonderful photo from the beginning of the 20th Century (Unknown photographer) This is how H. Bartlet depicted it around 1850. Hesekiah pool is a large water reservoir serving the city dwellers for many years. ברטלט 1850

13. The narrow Western Wall ally as depicted by Gustav Bauernfeind around 1850 (his only painting here). Henri Bartlet – 1850 The Western (Wailing) Wall The Prayer plaza in front of the Wailing Wall was for hundreds years a narrow ally surrounded from the west by residential houses. Only after capturing of the Old City in 1967, IDF’s heavy equipment cleared the site from the vacant houses, creating today’s the spaciousPrayer plaza as seen later.

14. Western Wall plaza today.

15. Today’s look of the gate, and the vendors’ stalls market in front. Fredrick Perlberg - 1880 Nablus gate, or as it was also known as Damascus Gate in the past. Painting by David Roberts – 1838.

16. Still blocked)) Merci Gate Today 1850Merci Gate – Henri Bartlet - The Merci Gate was blocked by the Muslims upon conquering the Old City; Based on Jewish tradition the messiah will enter Jerusalem via this gate, thus the Muslims wanted to prevent that!!! 1838 Bellow David Roberts painting -

17. The Gate Today A 19th Century photograph Jaffa Gate, the Citadel (David Tower) and western fortifications Fredrick Perlberg painting - 1880

18. 1838Absalom Tomb–David Roberts – Henri Barltlet - 1850 Zachariah tomb – on the right, Benei-Hezir tomb - middle, Absalom Tomb - left. At the eastern slope of the Temple Mount, three monumental tomb structures stand, carved in the rock of Kidron creek’s ravine; paintings by David Roberts (1838) and Henri Barltlet (1850)…

19. Absalom Memorial – is attributed to Absalom, King David’s son, yet there is no doubt it was built few centuries after King David’s era. , On the right – ‘Zacharia Tomb’, which is not a real tomb, but a memorial called ‘Nefesh’ for a respected family. On the left- Benei-Hezir – a Kohanim (high priests) family during the Second Temple period.

20. View of the Tomb of Kings entrance – a couple of decades ago Henri Bartlet’s painting – 1850 1838David Roberts’ painting - The Tomb of the Kings has an unusual tale behind it, about the royal family of Adiabene kingdom which was located at the time in today’s Armenia region. The Mother Queen Helene converted to Judaism and moved to Jerusalem and most likely buried in this magnificent tomb.

21. Entrance to the Tomb cave today. The Cave of Virgin Mary’s tomb (Jesus mother) at Gethsemane, Henri Bartlet’s painting circa 1850.

22. 1850Henri Bartlet’s painting - Unusual painting of Rachel Tomb by Luigi Mayer - 1803 Exiting Jerusalem, we encounter Rachel Tomb on the way to Bethlehem. 1880 Fredrick Perlberg -

23. .The front of the postcard (72 yrs old) A personal note regarding RachelTomb: My first visit to Rachel tomb took place in 1941 (I was 5.5 years old). We visit our relatives at Kibbutz Ramat Rachel over the weekend, and on Saturday we took a long walk to Rachel Tomb and Bethlehem. We did not own any cameras, so we bought a postcard, and our relatives’ son Uri (about my age) wrote the note below, which I cherished all these years. Later, you will be able to compare the way the Tomb looked then versus its look today.

24. Inside view of the Tomb covered by a nice Parochet (casket cover) with an embroidery dedication for the entombed. Update – The previous photo is outdated, here an actual photo of thesite today!!! (Photograph by Tzvika Har-Shefer) Today – Rachel Tomb is a fortified site lacks charm and decorum, neither to the entombed nor to the multitude visitors; from the outside – beyond the cement walls - one cannot see the original pleasing structure, luckily the inside is preserved as it was. Rachel Tomb’ photo preserved in 1970 archives.

25. I took this photograph from an approximate viewing point Starting with Henri Bartlet (1850) who preferred to paint it from its southern point, with Kidron creek in the background. Moving farther to one of the most charming monasteries in Judea desert Mar-Saba MonasteryIt seemed the even 150 years ago this monastery attracted the many painters visiting the Holy-land

26. A view of the entire Monastery – from the east, Kidron Creek (where its founder Mar-Saba’s cave is located) runs between the Monastery impressive fortifications and me. 1838 David Roberts - The preferred view is the viewing point from the eastern side of Kidron creek, as most past painters did, and my preference too.

27. 1880John Woodard - 1867Edward Lear - Igal Morag

28. The Patriarch cave structure today. a view of the Patriarch Cave – Bartlet Hebron today. A view of Hebron with the Cave of Machpelah (Patriarch Cave) at the top – H. Bartlet -1850. Now, few quick glimpses from various beautiful corners of our country.

29. Remnants of a pagan shrine at Tel kadesh. Remnants of Baraam Synagogue Traveling to the Upper Galilee to check on two wonderful sites painted by Wilson.

30. I followed him from the same point. We are completing our tour with thepainters of old Palestina at Acre bay David Roberts capture the city from a nice viewing point.

31. Here – a glimpse into al-Umdan Kahn (inn, which was nicely restored since allowing visitors to enjoy its impressive offerings) Henri Bartlet entered the old-Acre (about 1850) and preserve several of its charming sites – a look at the magnificent al-Jezzar Mosque, from the top of the Crusaders’ castle.

32. Few words regarding the painters David Roberts – Borne near Edinbrugh (Scotland) on Oct. 24th 1796, and died on Nov 25th 1864. He did not receive formal education in Arts and started his career as a theatre stage painter. In 1830 following his acceptance he became a full time Artist. He started to travel extensively, visiting Spain, Morocco, later Belgium and France. He was one of first English artists to the Middle-East, staying there for 11 months during 1838-39. He visited Egypt, Sinai, Syria, Eretz Yisrael and Lebanon, and painted many of the sites over his travel route. His inscriptions were published in 6 volumes in the following years, and were inspirations to many of his oil paintings later. Roberts’ paintings won wide success in his lifetime, and made him a rich and famous artist.

33. William Henri Bartlet – was borne in London on Mar 26th 1809, and died on Sep 13th 1854. He was a painter and engraving artist. Beginning in 1830, Mr. Bartlet visited many places in the Balkan region, the Middle East and USA, he created many engravings of buildings and scenery landscapes and sold them on a regular basis to a large list of subscribers. Mr. Bartlet passed away in 1854 on his return voyage from the Middle-East on a deck of a French ship near Malta’s shores.

34. Friedrich Perlberg (Photo not found) - Jewish, was borne on April 24th 1848 in Nirenberg Germany, where he studied architecture and landscape painting at the local academy. Later he pursued his art education in Munich and lived in Paris between 1858 to 1875, where he became acquainted with many oriental painters and their works. Although Perlberg was quite prominent within the cadre of the 19th Century artists who painted Eretz Yisrael’s landscapes, for unknown reasons his name was forgotten and his works did not receive the acclaim of others, although his wonderful paintings of Eretz Yisrael cities were used later widely on postcards during the 20th century . He died on Feb 15th 1921 in his city of birth.

35. Here our tour of the 19th century artists comes to its end, they commemorated the landscapes of this anguished land with the draws of their brushes. Please note that we did not show all the paintings, and there are many more that we could not include within the limitations of the current presentation

36. Production, Photography and editing by Igal Morag morag-i@013.net You may reach my web site through the following link:http://morag.artvision.co.il Translated to English – Samuel Liron