Edward Lear, Wady halfeh, Egypt.
Signed with the monogram, dated 1884 and inscribed ‘Wady Halfey Feb 3 1867’, watercolour. 9cm x 17.5cm (3.5in x 7in) .
Provenance
Childs Gallery, Boston;
Agnew’s London No. 15361
This work shows Wadi Halfa situated on the shore of Lake Nubia (Lake Nasser) on the present-day Sudanese-Egyptian border. Lear was particularly interested in the stark contrast between the landscape in Lower Egypt and Nubia writing in a letter to Lady Waldegrave ‘Nubia delighted me, it isn’t a bit like Egypt… Sad, stern, uncompromising landscape – dark ashy purple lines of hills, piles of granite rocks, fringes of palm, and ever and anon astonishing ruins of oldest temples.’
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