Edward Lear, Agia Paraskevi, Epirus, Greece
Inscribed in Greek and dated ‘Ayia… 13.April.1857.’ (lower right) and variously inscribed with colour notes ‘Nightingales/dim roar below’ and further numbered and inscribed ‘137./Longwise.alone’ (on the verso). Pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour on paper. 12 7/8 x 20 1/8 in. (32.8 x 51.1 cm.).
Lear had first visited Epirus and Albania in 1848-9. On 2 April 1857 he left Corfu for another tour, returning on 23 April. As the artist’s notes on the drawing indicate, the area was dominated by the continuous ‘dim roar’ of the water in the gorge below. This region was difficult to penetrate, but, as Lear found, the drama of its landscape amply repaid the effort. A drawing of a nearby section of the gorge made on 12 April (the day before this one) was in Agnew’s 127th Annual Exhibition of Watercolours and Drawings in 2000, no. 82. The artist’s fingerprints are clearly visible in the washes near the top left and top right corners of this drawing.
Edward Lear, The Plain of Damascus
Inscribed with colour notes and further inscribed ’21. night’ (on the reverse). Pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour on paper
13¾ x 18 1/8 in. (35 x 46.1 cm.).
Edward Lear travelled in Palestine, then Lebanon and Syria for three months in the spring of 1858. The sculptor Thomas Woolner (1825-1892) considered his Holy Land drawings ‘the most beautiful things he has ever done not only for the mystery and history attached to the places themselves but also for the excessive fineness, tenderness and beauty of the art displayed in them’ (letter of 22 October 1858, quoted in V. Noakes, Edward Lear 1812-1888, 1985, p. 112). Towards the end of May 1858 he was at Damascus, executing drawings for a panoramic oil that was painted in England in 1860-61.
Boston Sunday Post, 31 August 1913.
Edward Lear, An extensive view of Damascus.
Numbered ‘(221)’ (lower right) and further inscribed with colour notes
pencil, pen and brown ink and grey and blue wash, heightened with white on paper, unframed. 13¾ x 21½ in. (35 x 54.6 cm.).
A very early example of a Verbeek newspaper comic strip, probably recycled from his 1890s French production, the date is 2 December 1900. Notice the signature as VerBeck:
Edward Lear, The market square, Coblenz, Germany.
Partially inscribed and dated ‘[Co]blenz. 1837./August 12.’ (upper left). Pencil heightened with touches of white on blue-grey paper, the corners cut. 6 5/8 x 10 1/8 in. (16.8 x 25.7 cm.).
Edward Lear, Sion, Switzerland.
Inscribed and dated ‘Sion. 17. Sept. 1837’ (lower right) and further inscribed ‘H’ (lower right). Pencil heightened with white on blue-grey paper, the corners cut. 9 7/8 x 13 5/8 in. (25.1 x 34.5 cm.).
This is part of a group of drawings dating from Lear’s tour of Europe in the summer of 1837. Having spent the early summer of 1837 in Devon, Lear returned to London in early July and from there set off for the Continent on the Antwerp packet boat on 10 July in the company of his sister Ann with whom he travelled as far as Brussels. He then passed through Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland before spending September and October in the Italian Lakes, reaching Florence in November and Rome in early December. For most of the next ten years, Lear spent the winter in Rome and visited the rest of Italy in the summer.
The highly finished pencil work with white highlights is typical of Lear’s early style.
Edward Lear, Karnak on the Nile, Egypt.
Inscribed and dated ‘El Karnák/16. Feby. 7AM. 1854’ (lower left) and inscribed and dated again ‘El Karnak./16.Feby.1854./7.a.m.’ (lower right) and extensively inscribed with colour notes. Pencil, pen and brown ink and yellow and blue wash heightened with white on blue-grey paper. 8 3/8 x 13¾ in. (21.3 x 35 cm.).
The present drawing was executed during Lear’s second visit to Egypt and first trip up the Nile. The artist was in Cairo in December 1853. He left soon after Christmas in a large party of English people for a ten week journey to the First Cataract and back. Before departing he wrote to his sister promising ‘not to go into any pits, or caves; for I hate dust & mummies & dark holes’. He experienced terrible loneliness despite the company, but was excited by the landscape and wildlife, and spent ten happy days at Philae before starting the return journey on 8 February, reaching Luxor a week later. Guidebooks advised visitors arriving in Luxor to spend their first day at Karnak, and this appears to be what Lear did. The present drawing, which must have been one of the first he executed there, shows not the famous temple of Amun, but a view westward towards the Valley of the Kings. The temple appears in a drawing made on the following day, 17 February.
Edward Lear, Monte Generoso, Switzerland.
Inscribed and dated ‘Mte Generoso/10.30.AM/10. August 1878/& 14 August 1878/9.AM.’ (lower left) and extensively inscribed with colour and topographical notes, and numbered ’12’ (verso). Pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour. 15¼ x 22 in. (38.7 x 55.9 cm.).
Lear visited Monte Generoso in the summer of 1878 where he was amazed by the far-reaching views. In a letter to his nephew he commented that ‘the views near the Hotel are wonderful. There is one point from which you may (perhaps) see all the plains & lakes of Italy, besides the rivers Jordan, Mississippi & Amazon, the whole course of the Nile, – as well as the cities of Peking, St. Petersburg & Copenhagen, not to speak of the straits of Jamaica & Joppa with the adjacent islands of Cappadocia, Ceylon and Islington’ (27 July 1878).
A Blog of Bosh 