David Roberts, R.A. (Edinburgh 1796-1864 London)

Similarly to lot 83 this work would have been drawn on the spot and is the basis of a more finished watercolour executed for engraving in Roscoe's Jennings Landscape Annual. Roberts made several on-the-spot studies of Ronda; there is a view of the hilltop town (Huntingdon Library & Art Gallery, San Marino, California) drawn on the same day as the present drawing.

Roberts visited Ronda on his way from Malaga to Gibraltar. In a letter to his friend David Ramsay Hay, written from Gibraltar on 22nd April 1833 (National Library of Scotland), he mentioned 'a very interesting journey I had from Malaga across the Mountains of Ronda, the situation of which Mountain town is one of the Most extraordinary of Spain if not in the world'.
We are grateful to Krystyna Matyjaszkiewicz for her help in preparing this catalogue entry.