Brabazon trained for a short time under James D'Egville and Alfred Downing Fripp, however he was largely self-taught. On trips to Spain, Italy, Egypt, the Indies and France, Brabazon executed scores of landscapes in watercolor. The present drawing likely dates to the time Brabazon spent in Egypt as the drawing's recto depicts the pronaos of the Temple of Dakke, located in along the Nile in Lower Nubia. Dedicated to Thoth, the god of wisdom, the Temple of Dakke was noted by Brabazon's contemporaries for is synthesis of Greek and Roman elements. It is probable that the recto documents a panorama of Dakka, executed from a vantage point that stresses the vastness of the landscape. Brabazon went on the first of his three tours of the Nile in 1868.