Sculptors at Work, Tomb of Rekhmire

The sculptors' workshop scene in the Rekhmire tomb is one of the most detailed representations of Egyptian artistic production surviving from antiquity — showing craftsmen at various stages of carving, polishing, and finishing stone sculptures including sphinx figures and standing royal statues. Nina Davies's copy of this scene is consequently one of her most art-historically significant facsimiles, preserving visual evidence about the organization of Egyptian sculpture workshops and the technical processes involved in producing the monumental art of the New Kingdom. The scene's unusual combination of documentary specificity and artistic self-reference makes it exceptional in the tomb painting tradition.

The sculptors' workshop scene's complex spatial organization — multiple craftsmen at different tasks arranged across registers — required Davies to maintain the precise relative positions and scale relationships of the original while translating its condition into legible watercolor reproduction. Her handling of the stone surfaces and metallic tools shows particular care.