Luigi Mayer (1755-1803)one of the earliest  18th-century artists to venture east , who travelled through the Ottoman Empire between 1776 and 1794, sketching and painting panoramic landscapes, ancient monuments, and the Nile and its surroundings.Thomas Milton  (1742/3–1827), printmaker and topographical draughtsman.  (one of the engravers) from Views in Egypt, Palestine, and other parts of the Ottoman Empire Published by Robert Bowyer, London: c. 1804-13  by T. Bensley (printer)Colour printed aquatints, finished by hand Size 11 1/8 x 14 3/8 inches (sheet), 10 1/4 x 12 1/4 inches (image)


The prints are from a series of 96  aquatints first published separately in 1801, 1802, and 1803 for Sir Robert Ainslie (1730?-1812), ambassador to Constantinople from 1776 to 1792, where he also studied ancient architecture and collected ancient coins. The prints were published collectively from 1804 to 1813.

Mayer was an Italian-born artist of German descent. The aquatint engraver, Thomas Milton studied under William Woollett, and was extolled by scholar W. Bell Scott as having "a unique power of distinguishing the foliage of trees and the texture of bodies, especially water, as it never had been done before, and never will be done again."

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