Edward Lear, St Jean de Cap Ferrat, France.
Inscribed lower left: St Jean. (Villefranche) / 11.30 am. / 5 February 1865, numbered lower right: (51), further inscribed with colour notes. Pen and brown ink and watercolour. 250 by 349 mm.
Provenance
The Rev. Percy Mordaunt Barnard (1868-1941) and his wife Alice, née Barnand, Thence by descent to their daughter, Nea Morin (1905-1986), Thence by descent to the present owners
In this on-the-spot drawing, Lear looks over a thick woodland of maritime pine and olive, past the habour of St Jean de Cap Ferrat and then on – to the end of the peninsular – where the sky-line is punctuated by the distinctive chapel and tower of the Saint Hospice.
Over the winter of 1864-5, Lear was on the south coast of France and he spent much time recording its ‘strangely wild and magnificent’ scenery.1 The present drawing was made on the 5th February 1865 and although seemingly a clear day, he makes a point of noting, in the bottom right of the composition, that there was a ‘high wind’.
Over the winter of 1864-5, Lear was on the south coast of France and he spent much time recording its ‘strangely wild and magnificent’ scenery.1 The present drawing was made on the 5th February 1865 and although seemingly a clear day, he makes a point of noting, in the bottom right of the composition, that there was a ‘high wind’.
1. Diary, 6. xii. p. 64
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