Edward Lear, Rome, A View of the Forum with the Temple of Venus.
Signed and dated lower left: 13 / E. Lear f. 1841. Oil on canvas. 27.3 by 37.5 cm.; 10 3/4 by 14 3/4 in.
Provenance
Robert Crewe-Milnes, 1st Marquess of Crewe (1858-1945), Crewe Hall, Cheshire and later Crewe House, Curzon Street, London from circa 1901;
Thence by descent.
Literature
Crewe House, London, Inventory, vol. 2, 1914, p.90, Corridor from Entrance Hall to Staircase;
Manuscript Catalogue of Pictures at West Horsley, n.d., vol. 3, p.69.
A Blog of Bosh 
“Oh, Rome! my Country! City of the Soul!
The orphans of the heart must turn to thee,
Lone Mother of dead Empires! and control
In their shut breasts their petty misery.
What are our woes and sufferance? Come and see
The cypress—hear the owl—and plod your way
O’er steps of broken thrones and temples—Ye!
Whose agonies are evils of a day—
A world is at our feet as fragile as our clay…”