Edward Lear, “The Maid was in the garden, a hanging out the clothes”, original illustration for ‘Sing a Song of Sixpence’, pen and black ink on Whatman laid paper with partial watermark, sheet 138 x 220 mm. (5 3/8 x 8 3/4 in), small pin-hole damage and loss to upper left corner, minor browning to edges, unframed, [circa 1850-1880].
Provenance
Gifted by the artist to Miss Clark, Narbeth (see previous lot of letters);
Gifted by Clark to the family of the present owner;
Thence by descent
⁂ Another version of the same subject can be found in the scrapbook compiled by Mrs. C. Beadon between 1852-1880, now held in the Houghton Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. (see: MS Typ 55.23). Another variant was exhibited at The Royal Academy of Arts, exhibition in 1985, Edward Lear.
[Actually, I know at least three diofferent versions of Lear’s illustrations for this nursery rhyme.]
A Blog of Bosh 