Edward Lear, St John Lateran and the Claudian Aqueduct, Rome.
Signed with monogram (lower right). Watercolour over traces of pencil, heightened with white. 10.4 x 20.3cm (4 1/8 x 8in).

Provenance
Collection of Lady Peyton.
The Hon. Dorothy Gibbs and then by descent in the family.
Anon. sale, Christie’s, London, 17 November 2005, lot 103.
Private collection, UK.

There is an oil sketch of the same subject painted circa 1839-40, see Lady Strachey, The Letters of Edward Lear, 1907, London, p. 341.

St John Lateran, located in Rome, is considered to be the oldest and most significant basilica in the Christian world. Founded in the early 4th Century by Pope Melchiade, it was built on the ruins of a Roman villa owned by the Laterani family. The church was the first to be built with imperial approval after Emperor Constantine legalised Christianity in the Roman Empire through the Edict of Milan in AD 313. It served as the papal residence until the 14th century, and today it remains the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome, symbolising the heart of the Catholic Church. St John Lateran’s architecture combines Roman, early Christian and Baroque styles. The basilica houses important relics, such as the Lateran Baptistry and the Scala Santa. While St Peter’s Basilica is more popular, St John Lateran holds the title of ‘mother and head’ of all churches in the Catholic world.

Bonhams.