Pyramids & Sphinxes

February 6 - May 24, 2016 - This exhibition opens with these awed-filled images, including the Cleveland debut of a stunning watercolor of the portal of the Temple of Edfu by John Frederick Lewis, a great master of Victorian English watercolor. Such depictions served as models for the first photographers to explore Egypt, who worked for governments, institutes, and archaeologists. Intense curiosity about biblical lands gave rise to commercial photographic ventures; by the 1860s, these images, along with the rise of the middle class and improvements in transportation, stimulated tourism to the Middle East.