McBey, James (Scottish, 1883-1959). DAWN, THE CAMEL PATROL SETTING OUT. Hardie 181. Edition of 76, of which 70 were signed and numbered. Etching and drypoint, 1919.Signed in black ink lower right, and numbered "XVI", lower left. Inscribed in the plate "James McBey Serapeum July 1917 1919" (the journey took place in 1917; the etching was made in 1919...it is likely there were sketches which formed the basis for this etching, and the others which are related to it). 8 3/4 x 15 inches (plate)10 5/8 x 16 1/2 inches (sheet) In very good condition. Framed, likely in it original frame from Frederick Keppel & Co., NY, with the Keppel label McBey served as an Offical War Artist during World War I. At one point he was attached to an Australian unit in Egypt, the Australian Camel Patrol, and in July, 1917, he accompanied it on a mission from the Suez Canal to Beersheba. This scene shows the patrol leaving from the patrol's base at Serapeum to cross the Sinai Desert. This work is one the iconic images of the modern etching revival, which began in France in the 19th Century, reached its apogee with Whistler and continued into the 20th Century. So much of McBey's work achieves the same standard of excellence, but there is something about the way this image affects the viewer which makes it disctinctive and special. The nine soldiers of the patrol, each on a camel are bunched togther in the lower right quadrant, the vastness of the desert is suggested by a few wavy lines forming a low horizon line at the bottom, with a huge area of blank of sky above, and the suggestion of the darkness of night giving way to to daylight, at the top. The overall impression is of going off into a lonely, perhaps dangerous unknown.
