Edward Lear, Mount of Olives.
Inscribed and dated ‘Mount of Olives./4.30. PM. 10 April 1867.’ (lower left); numbered ‘(31)’ (lower right); annotated throughout. Pen, ink and watercolour over traces of pencil. 24 x 50cm (9 7/16 x 19 11/16in).
Provenance
Craddock & Barnard, London.
Private collection, UK.
Having visited Egypt in the early months of 1867, Lear set off for Palestine, travelling by ‘the grumpy roarygroanery of camels’ across the desert, arriving at Gaza in early April. The visit was restricted to a few weeks, Lear’s intention to visit Nazareth and Galilee, places he had missed during his previous visit to the area in 1858, hindered by the volume of Easter pilgrims arriving in the area.1
1 Vivien Noakes, Edward Lear, The life of a Wanderer, London, 1968, pp. 217-218.
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