Edward Lear, Dakkeh.
Inscribed and dated ‘Dakkeh./7.15 – 7.40 AM./Feb. 15. 1867./Pylon very sharp & well built/(a little too wide in drawing,)/or rather, not quite high enough’ (lower left); numbered ‘(477)’ (lower right); variously annotated throughout. Watercolour and ink heightened with white over traces of pencil. 28.9 x 54.4cm (11 3/8 x 21 7/16in).
Provenance
Thos Agnew & Sons Ltd., London.
Anon. sale, Christie’s, London, 11 July 1995, lot 105.
Private collection, UK (acquired from the above sale).
Edward Lear visited Egypt and the Nile in 1849, in late 1853 and in early 1867. He was delighted with Egypt’s intense colours and richness of scenery.
On the day the present lot was executed (rising at 5.40am, drawing at 7am) Lear wrote in his diary ‘…long flat lines of sandy distance, the few isolated lilac hills – the scant green of the Nile Garden, the silver river itself all form a beautiful Nubian scene ‘. (Edward Lear, Diary, 15 February 1867.)
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