Who painted Mt. Sinai?

Mt. Sinai was painted by Edward Lear in 1849.

Where can I see Mt. Sinai?

Mt. Sinai is held by Victoria and Albert Museum.

What movement is Mt. Sinai?

Mt. Sinai is associated with Romanticism.

Artwork

Mt. Sinai

Edward Lear , 1849

Mt. Sinai is a drawing by the Romanticist artist Edward Lear. It dates from 1849 and is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum. The work is a pencil drawing executed in 1849 that records a landscape view of the Wadi Ligah region in the Sinai Peninsula.

About this work

Overview

The work is a pencil drawing executed in 1849 that records a landscape view of the Wadi Ligah region in the Sinai Peninsula.

The work is a pencil drawing executed in 1849 that records a landscape view of the Wadi Ligah region in the Sinai Peninsula. It captures the terrain surrounding the Deir al‑Arbayn monastery, positioned west of the Wadi al‑Deir, and includes recognizable peaks such as Gabal Safsaf, Gabal Musa and Gabal al‑Rabbah. The composition combines a foreground path with distant village forms under a sharply outlined horizon.

Subject & Meaning

The drawing serves as a visual itinerary of the artist’s travel through the Sinai desert, marking key religious and geographic sites. By situating the monastic complex alongside the biblical mountains, the image links contemporary pilgrimage routes with their scriptural associations, offering viewers a sense of the spiritual landscape that attracted 19th‑century explorers.

Technique & Style

Rendered with light, rapid pencil strokes, the piece relies on cross‑hatching and varied pressure to suggest texture on the craggy cliffs and the play of shadow across the ground. The artist’s marginal annotations—place names and dates—indicate a field sketch, emphasizing immediacy over polished finish while still conveying topographic detail.

History & Provenance

Created during a journey from Cairo to Sinai and back via Suez in early 1849, the drawing remained in private hands until it appeared at a 1973 auction. It was subsequently purchased by the dealer Spink, where it entered a collection that continues to be referenced for its documentary value.

Context

The work belongs to a broader tradition of Victorian travel drawing, where artists recorded exotic locales for both scientific and aesthetic purposes. Its focus on sacred geography reflects contemporary European interest in biblical archaeology and the growing popularity of pilgrimage tourism in the Holy Land during the mid‑19th century.

Artist & collection

Artist

Edward Lear

Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised but which term…