Edward Lear, Turbia.
Pen and grey wash. Numbered and inscribed as titled ‘153 AT’ (lower left). 31.5 x 51cm (12¼ x 20 in.)
Provenance
Thomas Agnew and Sons Ltd., London, 1982, no 212
Edward Lear travelled to Southern France in the winter of 1864/5 and at the end of his journey along the Corniche wrote to his patron Lord Carlingford that he `brought back 144 drawings great and small’. The present work was derived from these sketches and depicts Turbia (La Turbie) which lies in the hills above Monaco on the highest point of the Via Aurelia. He used the work to illustrate Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem, The Daisy, a project that he originally conceived in 1852 that envisaged illustrating many of his poems with 200 works of `poetical topography’. The Daisy featured in 28 works and the inscription `153 AT’ refers to line five in the poem `What Roman strength Turbia showed’ and the poets initials. The project was never completed, but after Lear’s death Tennyson published a slim volume of three poems including The Daisy. The present lot was not illustrated but other works were, including a view of Monaco from Turbia.
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