Existing comment:
James McBey
Dawn. The Camel Patrol Setting Out, 1917-19
In summer 1917, McBey accompanied an Australian camel-mounted infantry on a five-day reconnaissance across Egypt and Palestine. Charged with guarding the Suez Canal from Ottoman forces, the Imperial Camel Corps takes its first strides toward Beersheba (in present-day Israel). McBey sets a dramatically low horizon etched with minimal lines of varied thickness, a perspective suggesting a boundless expanse of sun-drenched, arid land.
McBey developed many of his wartime sketches into prints upon returning to England in early 1919. Dawn opens the First Palestine Set, a series of eight etchings that chronicles the patrol's progress across the Sinai Desert. |