Frank Harding (19th / 20th Century)
‘Cleopatra’s Needle’
etching on paper
(impression) 9″ high x 12″ wide
(framed) 16 ¾” high x 18 ¾” wide
Notes: British etching on paper titled ‘Cleopatra’s Needle’ by listed artist Frank Harding (19th / 20th Century), c. 1890. Depicted is a view along the Thames featuring Cleopatra’s Needle along the Victoria Embankment as viewed towards the Waterloo Bridge and Somerset House. The Thames is teeming with the life of the city folk.
“The obelisk was originally erected in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis on the orders of Thutmose III, around 1450 BC. The material of which it was cut is granite, brought from the quarries of Aswan, near the first cataract of the Nile. The inscriptions were added about 200 years later by Ramesses II to commemorate his military victories. The obelisks were moved to Alexandria and set up in the Caesareum – a temple built by Cleopatra in honor of Mark Antony or Julius Caesar – by the Romans in 12 BC, during the reign of Augustus, but were toppled some time later. This had the fortuitous effect of burying their faces and so preserving most of the hieroglyphs from the effects of weathering.” (Wikipedia)
Markings: signed in pencil lower right margin, ‘Frank Harding’; inscribed in pencil lower left margin, ‘Cleopatra’s Needle’
Condition: Antique, Good
For Accuracy: an antique it may show expected light signs of age. There is light even toning and some foxing upper right. Presented in the original frame.
