Edward Lear, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Côte d’Azur, France.
Inscribed lower left: Villefranche / 29. January 1865 10.45 AM, and with further colour notes. Pen and brown ink and watercolour. 229 by 318 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.
Villefranche is a fortified port in the Alpes Maritimes, around three miles east of Nice. Lear took lodgings in Nice during the winter of 1864-5 and made many sketches at Villefranche during this time. Other on-the-spot drawings, showing the scene from this viewpoint, include one executed on the 30 November 1864 (see London, Christie’s, 5 June 2006, lot 63 – £33,600) and another which was drawn on the morning of 5 February 1865 (see London, Christie’s, 27 July 2020, lot 104 – £25,000).
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