Before Tutankhamun: Howard Carter’s Watercolours

If you’ve heard of Howard Carter, it is as the archaeologist who discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb. In November 1922, after years of methodical searching across the Valley of the Kings, Carter found the Pharaoh’s last resting place. The story of the ‘Boy King’ and his intact tomb full of riches captured the public imagination, sparking a global love affair with Egypt that touched every corner of popular culture.

This November marks the centenary of that discovery, but before he became a household name Carter had a long and storied career as an archaeological artist in Egypt. The V&A holds a number of watercolours from this time, which I’d like to highlight here.

Raised in Swaffham, Norfolk, as the youngest of 11 children, Howard Carter came from an artistic family. His father, Samuel John Carter, was himself an artist known for his animal paintings, and this background clearly comes through in Howard’s work – alongside his archaeological drawings, he found Egypt’s wildlife – in particular birds – a constant source of fascination.

Howard Carter joined his first field project in 1891, aged only 17. He had been recommended by his father’s patrons in Swaffham, the Amherst Family, who were themselves keen Egyptophiles. Their home Didlington Hall contained a huge collection of antiquities, one of Howard Carter’s first exposures to Egypt. Through the Amherst’s connections, Carter was sent to Egypt to accompany the Egyptologist Percy Newberry, painting tombs at the site of Beni Hasan. At a time before colour photography, watercolours were the only way of accurately recording painted decoration for publication, and Carter’s skills proved invaluable. Over the next few years, first under Newberry and then the ‘father of Egyptology’ Flinders Petrie, Carter drew not only tomb scenes but also learned restoration and excavation practices.

Carter’s talents were quickly noted. In 1893, he was appointed principal artist to the excavations at the temple of Queen Hatshepsut, at Deir el-Bahari near Luxor. For the next five years, Carter assiduously made drawings of the temple’s wall reliefs, which were photographically reproduced in the six-volume publication The Temple of Deir el-Bahari (published 1895–1908). Carter’s skill was such that he effectively drew the scenes freehand, copying them by eye. He later noted: ‘I tried many expedients; but they resolved in this simple solution: To first observe the fundamental laws of Egyptian Art; how it eliminates the unessentials; to copy that art accurately and intelligently with honest work, a free hand, a good pencil, and suitable paper.’ The portrait below, of Hatshepsut, is particularly important because it is one of few representations of the ancient queen (who herself ruled as a Pharaoh) that survived destruction by her successor, Thutmose III.

In 1899, impressed by his work and attitude, the Egyptian Antiquities Service appointed Carter as First Chief Inspector General of Monuments for Upper Egypt. A 25-year-old man with no formal education, Howard Carter was now in charge of all archaeological work in Upper (Southern) Egypt. Not that it was all smooth sailing, however. Carter had a reputation for being awkward and, at times, hot-tempered. Most notably, a diplomatic dispute in 1905 led to Carter leaving the Antiquities Service acrimoniously. A group of drunk French tourists assaulted some Egyptian tomb guards, and Carter sided with the Egyptians. Carter was told to apologise to French authorities; instead, he refused and resigned. For the next few years, still based in Egypt, Carter gave tours and sold watercolours to make an income. In particular, he made and sold many copies of a painting depicting the queen Ahmose, mother of Hatshepsut, taken from the temple of Deir el-Bahari.

In 1907, Carter’s fortunes changed for the better. He began working with George Herbert (better known as Lord Carnarvon), to whom he had been recently introduced, becoming Supervisor of Excavations at Thebes. In 1914, Carnarvon received the concession to dig in the Valley of the Kings; eight years later, the two of them and Tutankhamun would make history together.

Today, Howard Carter’s legacy is as a skilled archaeologist, but a complicated figure. Carter died of cancer in 1939, before he could finish publishing Tutankhamun’s tomb in full, and suggestions that he stole items from the tomb continue to circulate. In any case, these watercolours hopefully reveal yet another, little-known, side to a figure responsible for inarguably one of the most important moments of the twentieth-century.