Edward Lear, Masada on the Dead Sea, circa 1858.
Signed with monogram (lower right). Watercolour with touches of bodycolour, heightened with gum arabic. 17 x 37.5cm
A larger painting by Lear, depicting the same viewpoint as the present work, is in the collection of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (1986.40). The oil on canvas, painted for Frances Elizabeth Anne (née Braham), Countess Waldegrave (1821-1879), was executed in 1858, when Lear first visited and painted the mount of Masada in Israel, located at the edge of the Judean Desert on the western shore of the Dead Sea. It is likely that this watercolour is of a similar date.
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