Edward Lear, Monte Generoso, Switzerland.
Inscribed and dated ‘Mte Generoso/10.30.AM/10. August 1878/& 14 August 1878/9.AM.’ (lower left) and extensively inscribed with colour and topographical notes, and numbered ’12’ (verso). Pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour. 15¼ x 22 in. (38.7 x 55.9 cm.).
Lear visited Monte Generoso in the summer of 1878 where he was amazed by the far-reaching views. In a letter to his nephew he commented that ‘the views near the Hotel are wonderful. There is one point from which you may (perhaps) see all the plains & lakes of Italy, besides the rivers Jordan, Mississippi & Amazon, the whole course of the Nile, – as well as the cities of Peking, St. Petersburg & Copenhagen, not to speak of the straits of Jamaica & Joppa with the adjacent islands of Cappadocia, Ceylon and Islington’ (27 July 1878).
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