This remarkable view taken from the top of the Great Pyramid, is a dramatic watercolour typical of Luigi Mayer’s work in Egypt. Mayer trained in Rome, yet very little is known about his origins or personality, nor even if he was German, Swiss or Italian in origin. After painting landscapes for the King of Naples, he found employment in about 1786 with the British Ambassador to Istanbul, Sir Robert Ainslie, as well as journeying with other English travellers. For a time he became the ambassador’s painter, paid 50 guineas a year, and had to paint swiftly whatever caught his Lordship’s fancy when travelling. This did not seem to quell his painterly vigour and enthusiasm, so that his lively watercolours of antiquities, architecture, landscapes, manners and customs of the inhabitants of Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Greece, Romania and even Suffolk are still eagerly collected. Mayer went to England with Sir Robert in 1794, and between 1801 and 1810 aquatints after his watercolours were published in several volumes sponsored by Ainslie. Luigi’s paintings necessarily reflect his employer’s attitudes to the peoples he visited. However, according to the Dictionary of National Biography, Ainslie was alleged to be `strongly attached to the manner of the people … in his house, his garden, and his table he assumed the style and fashion of a Musselman [Muslim] of rank; in fine, he lived en Turk, and pleased the natives so much by this seeming policy … that he became more popular than any of the Christian ministers. (St James's Chronicle, 9 Dec 1790).

Luigi died in 1803, survived by his widow Clara, daughter of Mr. Barthold, an interpreter employed by Sir Robert. Clara continued to live in London, painting and selling her own landscapes, publishing her own work and assisting in the publication of her late husband's paintings.