Robb de Peyster Tytus

Robb de Peyster Tytus (born February 2, 1876 in Asheville , North Carolina , † August 14, 1913 in Saranac Lake , New York) was an American artist and amateur archaeologist .

Life

Robb de Peyster Tytus was born in Asheville, North Carolina, the only child of Edward Jefferson Tytus and Charlotte Mathilde Davies. His father died of tuberculosis in 1881 at the age of 34. Robb attended St. Mark's School in Southboro, Mass. and studied art at Yale . In 1897 he received the degree "Bachelor of Arts". He then devoted himself to art and visited London, Paris and Munich. Robb was made aware of his lung problems by doctors in Europe.

Robb married Grace Seeley Henop of New Haven on May 10, 1903, with whom he had two daughters.

Services

In Egypt

In 1899 he traveled to Egypt with his mother and found an interest in archeology. From the Khedives he received an excavation license for the palace of Amenhotep III, where Georges Daressy had already excavated in 1888. In collaboration with Percy Edward Newberry he led 1901-02 excavations of the palace of Amenhotep III. ( Amenhotep III in Greek). The "Palace of the Radiant Sun" or "House of Joy" as the king called it, now covers an area of ​​320 km² (today Malqata = the place where you can find things). Robb de Peyster Tytus is considered to be the discoverer of the bathroom in the palace. He was also the first to bring to light the beautiful paintings on the walls and the ceiling. In 1903 he published the results in "Preliminary Report on the Exavation of the Palace of Amenhotep III" with his own color copies of the painted floor and other decorations of the palace. In the same year he received the "Master of Arts" from Yale.

Back in America in 1904-06 he published a number of poems and short stories with an Egyptian background - some of them in collaboration with his wife. He also drew for magazines.

In America

Robb de Peyster Tytus bought land in the Tyringham Valley, Berkshire, Massachusetts, where from 1910 to 1912 he built a large white southern-style house with four Doric columns that he named " Ashintully ". But it became known as the "Marble Palace" because it consisted of 35 rooms with 10 bathrooms and 15 chimneys. Now Robb dealt with agriculture and the rearing of cattle and sheep. With the purchase of three farms, the property comprised approximately 1,000  acres (4.05  km² ).

Robb de Peyster Tytus was also active in politics and was elected twice as a member of the Massachusetts General Court.

In 1911 he was appointed a " Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society " in London.

When it became foreseeable that he would never work in Egypt for health reasons, he transferred his concession for the palace of Amenhotep III in 1910. with the permission of Gaston Maspero des Service d'Anquités of the Egypt expedition of the Metropolitan Museum of Art , for which Herbert E. Winlock in Malqata took over the excavations from 1911 onwards.

Robb de Peyster Tytus died on August 14, 1913 at the age of 32 in Saranac Lake, NY

The Robb de Peyster Tytus Memorial Foundation

After a visit to Egypt, his mother, Charlotte M. Tytus, set up the Robb de Peyster Tytus Memorial Fund in 1914 in memory of her son. From this, the Egyptian Department of the Metropolitan Museum of Art received $ 15,000 for five years, which was used to explore the graves in Sheik abd-el Qurna and the neighborhood. This resulted in a five-volume folio edition on the most important graves in West Thebes. Norman de Garis Davies and his wife Nina worked on this task for ten years from 1917 to 1927. This luxury leather-backed edition was limited to 500 pieces per volume and was printed on handmade Van Gelder paper.

Works

Robb de Peyster Tytus: A Preliminary Report on the Re-Excavation of the Palace of Amenhotep III. Published by Winthrop New York, 1903

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ashintully Gardens Tyringham, MA
2. ^ New York Times 1913: Robb De Peyster Tytus; Former Member of Massachusetts House Dies at Saranac Lake.
3. ↑ Bulletin of the MET Museum - Gift from Mrs. Edward J. Tytus (PDF; 82 kB)