Mountains of Moab and the Dead Sea from the Road to the Mount of Olives
- Artist: Emily Sargent
- Date: 1928
- Medium: Watercolour and graphite on paper
- Dimensions: support: 254 × 354 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the "Mountains of Moab and the Dead Sea from the Road to the Mount of Olives" by Emily Sargent, created in 1928. The scene opens on a fertile, undulating landscape that once belonged to the ancient Moab kingdom of the Levant—modern‑day southern Jordan—lands that the Hebrew Bible remembers. In this watercolor and graphite study, Sargent sketches the rugged hills in confident pencil first, then layers translucent washes of color to capture the region’s light.
Emily travelled with her brother John Singer Sargent and their mother, Mary Newbold Sargent, to sketch these remote hills. Although she worked side‑by‑side with her brother, she kept her watercolors within a very close circle, never showing them to anyone outside her family. The painting was donated in 2021 at the request of her family, adding a rare, intimate piece to the collection.
Sargent’s technique, with broad washes laid over clear pencil lines, echoes her brother’s bold style yet remains distinctly hers—soft, almost lyrical in handling the medium. Born in Rome in 1857, she spent her life wandering Europe, the Near East, and North Africa, sketching and painting wherever her family went. Her last works were produced until her death in Zurich in 1936, making this painting a poignant glimpse of her mature, itinerant artistry.
See it in person
Mountains of Moab and the Dead Sea from the Road to the Mount of Olives is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
