Lake Thun with the Schlöss Oberhofen
pencil and watercolour on paper
12 3/8 x 10¼ in. (31.4 x 26 cm.)

Lear left London for a walking tour of Switzerland on August 1854. On 6 August he wrote to his sister Ann ‘I had no idea really of the beauty of Switzerland – for I never was in the really fine parts, except in 1841 – when I came thro’ by night … The Lake of Thun is one of the most beautiful of all the Swiss Lakes; -such a wonderful pea-blue sea-green!’

To Ann: “I set out to walk to Interlacken[sic]… along the north side of the Lake which is like a garden or park till, towards the east end, when one walks through beautiful shady woods.”

View of Interlaken, Switzerland
inscribed and numbered ‘Interlaken/2.Sept.185’ (lower left) and further inscribed ‘How is the father of the [?] mother in the Faulhorn/ascending on the top?’ (lower right) and further inscribed with colour notes
pencil, blue and brown ink and grey and blue wash
11 x 18¼ in. (28 x 46.5 cm.)