Edward Lear, The Colossi of Memnon.
Pen, coloured ink and coloured wash. Inscribed and dated ‘Thebes, 20 Feb 1854’ (lower right), colour notes throughout. 11 x 32.5cm (4¼ x 12¾ in.)
Edward Lear travelled to Egypt in 1854, following the Nile south. During his travels he was astonished by the beauty of the landscapes and the villages, which he described as ‘fairy islands’, each of which capable ‘enough to occupy an artist for months’. Albeit in his letters he lamented about the difficulty of painting, for ‘the colours dry fast, and sand injures them,’ the climate did not stop him analysing and painting what he saw; when informing his elder sister Ann about his daily routine he wrote: ‘I have been at work every day throughout the whole daylight, and so charming is the place and the climate that I shall be very sorry to leave it’.
A Blog of Bosh 