At Philae

Charles Dana Gibson's sketch study, drawn on location or from field notes at Philae—the celebrated Nile island temple complex—presents two figures in stark ink against bare paper. At left, a robed and turbaned man reclines on the ground, weight on one arm, legs extended; at right, a young woman in head-veil and long robe stands facing forward, one hand gathered at her waist. No printed caption survives on the sheet. The drawing belongs to Gibson's Egyptian travel work of the late 1890s. The figures are rendered with attention to pose and costume detail.