Engraving by Bartlett: View of the Suez From the Ancient Canal

Oddly, a camel train pauses at a hilltop, scanning an enormous empty plain

This engraving is from England, United Kingdom, and is dated 1847. It is ink on paper. Printmaking carried enthusiasm for the Orient beyond a small circle of patrons, because publishers and artists produced illustrated books on travel and religion that could be distributed affordably to all classes. Rendered in black and white, a print of a rider on a camel and a few standing figures on a rise, with a flat, hazy expanse and low mountains beyond. It is 10.2 inches wide and 7.8 high.

The horizon asks nothing of them and they ask nothing back.