Saint Catherine Monastery in the Sinai (Egypt)

Adolf von Meckel was a student at the academy in Karlsruhe. In 1880-1881 he travelled to the Near East with a group of fellow students. At the start of 1881 he spent a week in the Sinai desert. In succeeding years he frequently visited the Orient. Apart from Eastern genre scenes he painted landscapes in what is now Egypt, Israel…

Adolf von Meckel was a student at the academy in Karlsruhe. In 1880-1881 he travelled to the Near East with a group of fellow students. At the start of 1881 he spent a week in the Sinai desert. In succeeding years he frequently visited the Orient. Apart from Eastern genre scenes he painted landscapes in what is now Egypt, Israel and Jordan. In his monumental landscapes he combined the rough, inhospitable desert with elements from everyday life, illustrated here by the caravan in the foreground. This painting shows a striking degree of realism founded on the depiction of details, the appearance of materials and its unusual size.