Leather Working, Tomb of Rekhmire

Art Historical Context

Step into the bustling workshops of ancient Egypt with *Leather Working, Tomb Rekhmire*, a vivid facsimile of a wall painting from the Theban tomb of Rekhmire, a powerful vizier during Dynasty 18 of the New Kingdom (ca. 4–1425 B.C.). This scene captures artisans skillfully tanning hides, stretching leather, and crafting goods—essential trades that ensured the vizier's comfort in the afterlife. Such detailed depictions in elite tombs like Rekhmire's (TT 100) reflect the era's prosperity under pharaohs like Thutmose III and Amenhotep II, showcasing Egypt's advanced economy and reverence for daily labor as a pathway to eternity. Created in the early 20th century by Nina de Garis Davies, a pioneering artist and Egyptologist, this 1:1 scale watercolor facsimile on paper uses tempera paint and ink to meticulously recreate the original's vibrant hues and precise lines. Davies, working with her husband Norman de Garis Davies, produced these copies on-site to preserve fading tomb art for scholars and the public, now housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Egyptian Art department (Rogers Fund, 1931). These scenes offer a rare window into ancient Egyptian society, highlighting specialized craftsmanship and the tomb's role as a "book of the dead" in visual form. Marvel at how such art blended realism with symbolism, immortalizing Rekhmire's world for us today.

About the Artist

Nina de Garis Davies · 1881–1965

Nina de Garis Davies, born Anna Macpherson Cummings on January 6, 1881, in Salonika, Greece, to English-Scottish parents Cecil J. Cummings and Sarah Macintosh Tannoch, showed early artistic talent as the eldest of three daughters. After her father's death in 1894, the family relocated to Scotland and then London, where she trained at the Slade School of Art. In 1906, at age 25, a holiday trip to E...