In 1907, the Metropolitan Museum of Art organized an expedition to Egypt, during which Norman de Garis Davies and his wife Nina M. Davies created facsimiles of wall paintings found in tombs on the west bank of the Nile. The museum was particularly interested in the burials of officials and royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, dating from the 16th to 11th centuries BCE. This place became a rich source of knowledge about ancient Egyptian wall paintings, as well as about the daily life and ceremonial customs of the Egyptians over several centuries.
In the process of copying the drawings, the couple used a technique that allowed them to not only transfer the images onto paper, but also reproduce the damage to the originals in minute detail. The copies presented are made in tempera on paper. By 1941, the artists had drawn about 350 facsimiles, most of which are now kept in the Metropolitan Museum, and several dozen works were donated to the British Museum back in 1936. Most often, the couple signed the facsimiles with different initials: Norman - No.deGD, and Nina - Na.deGD. However, the authorship of some drawings is difficult to establish, since they are signed NdeGD.
Norman de Garis Davies studied at the University of Glasgow and the University of Marburg, and received a doctorate. He not only copied images of hieroglyphs, but also became an expert in deciphering them. The scientist met his future wife in 1906 in the Egyptian city of Alexandria. Having married in London, they immediately went to Thebes, where they began documenting tombstone inscriptions. Nina M. Davis not only worked on the facsimiles for the Metropolitan Museum, but also copied tomb paintings for Egyptologist Alan Gardiner.
Source:
metmuseum.org
