Howard Carter

Sitter in 1 portrait
Carter was the son of Samuel Carter an animal and sporting painter who trained Howard in the skills of drawing and watercolour painting. His father also encouraged the teenage Carter to accept an offer to travel to Egypt to draw tomb scenes at Beni Hasan. He later moved on to work for Flinders Petrie where he realised he wished to pursue a career in archaeology. From 1893 he spent seven years drawing records of the reliefs in the temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir al-Bahri. In 1899 he became the first chief inspector of antiquities in Upper Egypt and from 1909 collaborated with the 5th Earl of Carnarvon who was a keen Egyptologist. In 1922, after thirty years working on excavations in Egypt, Carter made the discovery of his career; whilst excavating in the Valley of the Kings he uncovered the tomb of Tutankhamun. He spent the rest of his life writing a scientific account of the discovery but died in 1939 before its completion.