Edward Lear, A view of the Temple of Karnak at sunset, Thebes, Egypt.
Signed with monogram (lower right) and inscribed ‘Karnak. Thebes. Egypt’ (verso). Pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour, heightened with white on paper. 4 ¼ x 8 1⁄8 in. (10.8 x 20.6 cm.)
Provenance
J. F. Tillotson.
Anonymous sale; Christie’s, London, 20 November 1984, lot 172.
Anonymous sale; Christie’s, London, 12 April 1994, lot 174.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London, 4 July 2018, lot 222.
Lear first visited Egypt in January 1849, when he saw only Cairo and the Pyramids. The artist returned to Egypt at the end of 1853, arriving in Cairo that December. Immediately after Christmas, he received an invitation to journey up the Nile and embarked on a trip that took him as far south as Philae before he began his return journey on 8 February. A week later the boat arrived at Luxor, where Lear spent ten days exploring Karnak and the ruined temples at Thebes.
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