Ancient Egyptian art was a frequent topic of discussion and documented in many volumes of the time. David Roberts documented his early 19th century travels to Egypt and the Holy Lands with his paintings, which were extremely popular when published as bound volumes of lithographs in early Victorian England. Egyptian art was an important part of their lives at this time. Art at this time was either commissioned by kings or nobles for temples or tombs. Egyptian art was intended to convey concepts largely unrelated to the subject portrayed. A king should look like a king in art whether his real life appearance was regal or not.

Ancient Egyptian art was essentially a symbolic language with a prescribed vocabulary capable of being read as directly as Egyptian hieroglyphs. It was not the role of the sculptor to invent variations on that language, but to learn its rules and apply them.