An Artist in Abydos: The Life and Letters of Myrtle Broome

by Lee Young, Peter Lacovara (Foreword by)

Overview

The first book to reveal the private life of an Englishwoman whose contribution to the recording of Egypt’s ancient past has long been overlooked

An Artist in Abydos is the first book to recognize Broome’s great contribution to the work done during this golden age of excavation in Upper Egypt. In this remarkable account, Lee Young tells the story of Myrtle Broome, who died in 1978, largely through her letters. An only child and a prolific writer, Broome wanted her parents to know every facet of her life in Egypt. Her frequent letters to them vividly capture life in the villages, the traditions of the local people, the work of artisans, such as weaving and pot-making, and festivals, ceremonies, and music. In fascinating detail, the letters also depict Broome’s living conditions providing us with a personal account of what it was like to be an English, working woman living abroad in Egypt in the 1930s.

Myrtle Florence Broome was born in 1888 to artistically inclined middle-class parents in the district of Holborn in London. Between 1911 and 1913, she studied at University College London under the legendary Sir William Petrie. In 1927 she was invited to join the excavations at Qau el-Kebir as an artist for the British School of Archaeology in Egypt, later traveling, in 1929, to work at the now famous Seti Temple in Abydos for the Egypt Exploration Society. Broome spent eight seasons there, copying the painted scenes in the Temple. Regarded then as one of the greatest copyists working in Egypt, she left invaluable renditions of some of ancient Egypt’s most beautiful monuments.

An Artist in Abydos is an important book celebrating the contributions of an under-recognized woman artist during the golden age of excavation in Egypt.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781649030511
Publisher:	American University in Cairo Press, The
Publication date:	07/06/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	11 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Lee Young is an independent researcher and lecturer in Egyptology specializing in the artists and epigraphers who have worked in Egypt through the years, focusing on the women. She has been a research volunteer for the Griffith Institute Archive at Oxford University and has also worked on a project for the Egyptian Exploration Society.

Peter Lacovara is director of the Ancient Egyptian Heritage and Archaeology Fund. He was formerly senior curator of ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern art at the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University. He is co-author of Nubian Gold: Ancient Jewelry from Sudan and Egypt (AUC Press, 2019) and co-editor of Ancient Nubia: African Kingdoms on the Nile (AUC Press, 2012).

Peter Lacovara is director of the Ancient Egyptian Heritage and Archaeology Fund. He was formerly senior curator of ancient Egyptian, Nubian, and Near Eastern art at the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University. He is co-editor of Ancient Nubia: African Kingdoms on the Nile (AUC Press, 2012).

Editorial Reviews

"An Artist in Abydos explores Myrtle Broome, one of the greatest copyists to work in Egypt during the twentieth century. Lee Young expertly reconstructs Broome’s life, using her detailed and engaging letters that captured everything about her life while in Egypt. Along with Amice Calverley, Broome spent eight seasons at Abydos, copying the exquisite painted reliefs in the Temple of Seti I. The resulting four-volume publication, The Temple of King Sethos I at Abydos, edited by Alan H. Gardiner, is devoted to the superb copies of the painted wall reliefs and remains one of the finest records of Egyptian temple art. An Artist in Abydos is a brilliant chronicle of an under-recognized female artist pursuing her dream during the golden age of excavation in Egypt.”—Melinda Hartwig, author of The Tomb Chapel of Menna (Tt 69): The Art, Culture, and Science of Painting in an Egyptian Tomb

“Lee Young has skillfully compiled, edited, and narrated a captivating selection of Myrtle Broome’s letters home, written during her employment as an archaeological artist in Egypt of the 1920s–1930s, just after the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. Through Myrtle’s intimate correspondence, the reader is quickly drawn into her fascinating daily life, work, and adventures in the Egyptian desert. Moreover, what shines through most in Myrtle’s observations, seen from her English middle-class perspective, is her humanity and deep affection for the ordinary people of Egypt.”—Reg Clark, author of Securing Eternity: Ancient Egyptian Tomb Protection from Prehistory to the Pyramids

"An Artist in Abydos is a step toward rescuing a ‘minor character’ from oblivion and according Myrtle Broome the significance she deserves in the history of Egyptology."—Jason Thompson, Bibliotheca Orientalis

"[A] remarkable account. . . Broome. . . ranked among the greatest of the copyists working in Egypt in the twentieth century who left us an invaluable record of some of ancient Egypt's most beautiful monuments."—Peter Lacovara, from the Foreword

From the Publisher