Edward Lear, View of Bissone, Lake Lugano, Switzerland.
Inscribed with title, colour notes and dated “10.15 to 11 a.m. / 17 August 1878” lower left pen, brown ink and blue wash 31 x 51cm (12 x 20in).
Provenance
Michael Spratt, English Watercolours, Kingfishers, East Shalford Lane, Guildford, Surrey, where purchased by the vendor.
The present drawing dates from the holiday which Edward Lear took at Monte Generoso, above Lake Lugano, with his old servant, Giorgio Kokali. The latter had been ill, and the visit was at least partly intended as convalescence for him (see Vivien Noakes, “Edward Lear, the Life of a Wanderer, London, 1968).
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