A Blog of Bosh

Edward Lear, Monaco.
Signed and inscribed Monaco Edw Lear del (in ink, lower right). Watercolour, with pen and sepia ink. 14.7 x 22.5cm; 5¾ x 8¾in

Lear wrote to his friend Chichester Fortescue in November 1864 that he ‘had no idea the Cornice was so magnificent in scenery; Eza [sic Eze] and Monaco are wondrously picturesque, and Mentone very pretty’

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Edward Lear, Mentone.
Signed and inscribed Mentone/ Edw Lear del (in ink, lower right). Watercolour, with pen and sepia ink, heightened with scratching out. 14.3 x 22.3cm; 5½ x 8¾in

In correspondence to a friend in November 1864, Lear wrote that he was about to ‘flee away south to Mallorca, Marseilles, Monpelier, Mentone, Malta, Malaga, Madiera I don’t know which – or much care, provided the place begins with a Nem.’ During the winter of 1864-5, he made many detailed studies along much of the south coast of France.

The Saleroom.

Edward Lear, Nice.
Watercolour and bodycolour, with pen and sepia ink. 14.2 x 22.5cm; 5½ x 8¾in

Edward Lear’s frail constitution gave him greater comfort when he chose to pass his winters abroad. The warmer climate soothed his bronchitis, asthma, grand mal fits and `the morbids`(probably his term for incipient depression). He visited Nice each year from 1864-1870; the town had become the fashionable winter resort for the wealthy since being ceded by Italy to France in 1860. Within its streets and gardens, Lear found friends and patrons alike.

Despite its climate, landscape and comfort, the South of France was not quite as isolated as Lear may have chosen. In a letter to Holman Hunt, he wrote: ‘If you want to be quiet anywhere for miles round Nice, and sit down to draw – lo! presently, 30 parties of smart young ladies on donkies immediately surround you – and in a twinkling the ground is white with tablecloths, and liveried servants are opening champagne bottles’.

The Saleroom.