Edward Lear, Monaco.
Signed with monogram (lower left). Pencil and watercolour heightened with touches of bodycolour. 4 1/8 x 8 in. (10.5 x 23 cm.).
The present work is drawn from Cap D’Ail, in 1865 and looks towards the Prince’s palace on the left of the peninsular with the cathedral, since rebuilt, a little to the right. Lear wrote to his friend Chichester Fortescue (1823-1898) on 13 November 1864 when he was in the south of France; ‘had no idea the Cornice was so magnificent in scenery; Eza [sic Eze] and Monaco are wondrously picturesque, and Mentone very pretty’ (Lady Strachey, ed., Later Letters of Edward Lear, London, 1911, p. 51).
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