THE LANDSCAPES OF ERETZ ISRAEL IN BIBLICAL SKETCHES OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY / נופה של ארץ-ישראל בציורי מקרא של המאה הי"ט

In the 1830s, many books appeared that attempted to illustrate the Bible with landscapes and figures of Eretz Israel, and such sketches were exhibited throughout the world. Two principal approaches characterized these sketches. The first was a documentary approach that attempted to portray the nineteenth century landscape of Eretz Israel in a realistic fashion. As Western travel increased, a growing number of artists sought to record their impressions of that land with fidelity and accuracy, many of them using the camera to help prepare their sketches. The second approach chosen by a number of important artists sought to express religious sentiments; their drawings also incorporated feature of the landscape and the local people. Both groups of pictures provide an important source of information about the natural and inhabited landscape, as seen through nineteenth-century eyes. The wide distribution of these drawings was a major characteristic of the deep interest of the Western European world in the Land of Israel during the nineteenth century.