01 Classic Works of Art, Marine Paintings - With Footnotes, #118

Adolf von Meckel, 1856 - 1893, GERMAN

FISHERMEN ON LAKE MARIOUT, EGYPT, c. 1889

Oil on canvas

200 by 270cm., 78¾ by 106in.

Private collection

Lake Mariout is a brackish lake in northern Egypt. The lake area covered 200 km² and had a navigable canal at the beginning of the 20th century, but at the beginning of the 21st century, it covers only about 50 km².

At least 250 years ago, the lake was fresh water, and much of it would dry up during the period just before the Nile flooded again. A storm in 1770 breached the sea wall at Abu Qir, creating a sea-water lake known as Lake Abu Qir. The salt waters were kept separate from Lake Mariout by the canal that allowed fresh water to travel from the Nile to Alexandria. As part of the Siege of Alexandria, on 13 March 1801, the British cut the canal, allowing a great rush of sea water from Lake Abu Qir into Lake Mariout. Lake Abu Qir ceased to exist, and Lake Mariout became brackish instead of fresh.


It is separated from the Mediterranean Sea by the narrow isthmus on which the city of Alexandria was built. The lake shore is home to fisheries and saltworks. As far back as the early 1900s, it was documented that salt was being refined from the western part of the lake. More on Lake Mariout

Adolf Meckel of Hemsbach (* 17th February 1856 in Berlin ; † 24. May 1893 ) was a German landscape and genre painter. After the early death of his father, he spent his childhood with the maternal grandparents in Saint Petersburg. He studied painting at the Karlsruhe Academy of Fine Arts in Hans Gude. From 1880 to 1881 he visited the Arab countries of Egypt , Palestine , the coast of the Dead Sea, in Jordan. Further journeys led him to the countries of the North African Maghreb . Among others, he visited St. Catherine's Monastery at the foot of Mount Sinai . Besides the tropical landscapes he created numerous orientale genre scenes. After his final return he was initially based in Karlsruhe, then moved in 1892 back into his own country.

Meckel regularly presented his work at the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin exhibition, the Great Berlin Art Exhibition, as well as in Munich Glass Palace. He also exhibited in Dresden, Stuttgart and Vienna. In 1893, he took his own life. More on Adolf Meckel of Hemsbach

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, and The Canals of Venice

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