A Blog of Bosh

Edward Lear, Patti.
Inscribed and dated ‘Patti 4 July 1847’ and numbered 2/2, and further inscribed with notes throughout, pencil and pen and ink. 30cm x 46cm (11.75in x 17.75in).

Patti, which is close to Messina, is most known for the magnificent ruins of the surrounding ancient Greek city of Tindari and the ruins of its ornate Roman villa, which dates back to the second and third centuries AD. Founded in 1094 by Norman King Roger II of Sicily, Patti was destroyed by Frederick of Aragon in 1300 due to its affiliation with the House of Anjou. Rebuilt in the 16th century, it was eventually sacked by Ottoman Turks.

Lyon & Turnbull.

Edward Lear, Walls of Pavia.
Signed and dated ‘Edw. Lear 11 May 1841’ and inscribed ‘Walls of Pavia’, watercolour.  6.5cm x 13.5cm (2.75in x 5.25in).

Provenance
Child’s Gallery, Boston

Apart from two visits to England, Lear stayed in Italy between 1837 and 1847 where he enjoyed financial freedom and was actively involved in the community of international artists in Rome. A fine example of Lear’s early landscapes, the present watercolour was executed when the artist travelled to England in the spring of 1841 after having spent the winter in Rome.

Lyon & Trunbull.

Edward Lear, Sepolcro di Terone, Sicily, Italy.
Inscribed, dated and numbered ‘Sepolero di Terone Gigenti 29 May 1847 (63)’ and further inscribed with notes throughout, pencil, pen and ink. 8.25cm x 25.5cm (3.25in x 10.25in).

Leaving Rome in April 1847, Lear travelled south together with John Proby (1780-1855), subsequently 2nd Earl of Carysfort. They stayed in Sicily from the 3rd of May to 19th of July, as a result of which a volume containing twenty Nonsense drawings of their adventures on the island was published in 1938 as Lear in Sicily. At the end of May they were in Agrigento, the city founded by Greek colonists in about 580 BC, and from there Lear wrote to his sister ‘Nothing of earth can be so beautiful as Girgenti with its 6 Temples — I speak of the old town — & the flowers & birds are beyond imagination lovely. I must however, need say that the gnats, fleas, flies, wasps, etc. etc.— require much philosophy to bear’.
The Tomb of Theron is located in the Valley of the Temples and dates from the 1st century BC. Theron (died 473 BC), son of Aenesidemus, was a Greek tyrant of the town of Acragas from 488 BC.

Lyon & Turnbull.

Edward Lear, Edward Lear, View of Mount Modino, near Abetone, Tuscany.
Watercolour and brown ink. Titled and dated ’18 “20” August 1883′ (lower right). 30 x 54cm (11¾ x 21¼ in.)

Dreweatts.

Edward Lear, Sacro Monte di Varese.
Black chalk, pen and brown ink, 275×495 mm. On the recto, lower left, pen and brown ink: “Sacromonte 8. Sept. 1879”

Exhibited
Edward Lear (1812 – 1888), Il viaggio come avventura estetica, vedute d’Italia, Milano, Finarte, 3 febbraio 1994

Bibliography
A. Porro, Edward Lear (1812 – 1888), Il viaggio come avventura estetica, vedute d’Italia. Catologo della mostra, Milano – Roma – Londra 1994, scheda 20.

Pandolfini.