Edward Lear, Flora.
Watercolour over pencil on paper; signed lower left: E Lear., dated lower right: 1831., inscribed with title lower centre. 264 by 212 mm.

Provenance
With Davis Galleries, New York;
sale, London, Christie’s, 25 April 1995, lot 131,
where acquired by the late owners

During the early 1830s Lear was much preoccupied with the study of animals and birds. His most celebrated work in this area was his Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots which contained forty-two hand coloured lithographs after his watercolours.
For a similar watercolour of the same scale, date and style of inscription see Lear’s Javanese Peacock, now held in the Houghton Library, Harvard University.1

1. V. Noakes, The Painter Edward Lear, London 1991, p. 33.

Sotheby’s.