A Blog of Bosh

Edward Lear, Philae.
Signed  with  the  monogram  lower  right;  signed  and  dedicated  on  the  stretcher  Painted  for  Miss  Clementina  Macdonald  Lockhart  Edward  Lear
oil  on  canvas
24  by  46cm.,  9½  by  18¼in.

Lear’s oil paintings, with few exceptions, were derived from his rapid ‘on the spot’ pencil or pen sketches, and the present work relates closely to his watercolour of the same subject, dated 1867. Lear had first visited Philae thirteen years earlier, when he spent ten days exploring the island, setting up camp in the Temple of Isis. He developed a strong sense of attachment to the place and wrote: ‘The great Temple of Isis […] is so extremely wonderful that no words can give the least idea of it’ (Lear to his wife Ann, 7 February 1854, quoted in Vivien Noakes, Edward Lear Selected Letters, Oxford, 1988). As well as many watercolours, Lear painted at least twenty oils of Philae, often concentrating on its impressive setting rather than the ruins themselves.
The present oil is taken from a viewpoint on the rocky bank of the Nile to the west of the island. The focus is upon the foreground and the colours and rounded forms of the rocks are depicted in minute detail. The island takes a secondary role in the picture and the Ptolemaic Temple of Isis and the Kiosk of Trajan are dwarfed by the towering cliffs along the banks of the Nile.

Provenance:
Miss Clementina Macdonald Lockhart (a gift from the artist)
Spink, London
John, Lord D’Ayton; thence by descent to the present owners.

Sotheby’s.

Edward Lear, Sheik Abadeh on the Nile.
Signed  with  the  monogram  lower  right;  inscribed  on  a  label  on  the  stretcher: Edward  Lear/San  Remo/London  Agents/Ford  and  Dickinson/90  Wardour  Street/£25/£20.
Oil  on  canvas, 24  by  46.5cm.,  9½  by  18¼in.

On his first trip up the Nile in 1854, Lear was moved to write to his sister Ann: ‘So far, it is a magnificent river, with endless villages – hundreds & hundreds on its banks, all fringed with palms, & reflected in the water; – the usual accompaniments of buffaloes, camels etc. abound, but the multitude of birds it is utterly impossible to describe, – geese, pelicans, plovers, eagles, hawks, cranes, herons, hoopoes, doves, pigeons, king fishers & many others. The most beautiful feature is the number of boats, which look like giant moths, – & sometimes there is a fleet of 20 or 30 in sight at once’ (4 January 1854; quoted in Vivien Noakes, Edward Lear: The Life of a Wanderer, London, 1968, p. 122).
Although Lear was fascinated by the beauty of the scenery and wildlife he saw whilst travelling up the Nile, it was the colours which astonished him most. When he made his second trip up the Nile thirteen years later, in January and February 1867, he realised that his watercolours seemed drained of colour and he wrote ‘In no place – it seems to me, can the variety & simplicity of colours be so well studied as in Egypt; in no place are the various beauties of shadow more observable, or more interminably numerous’ (Diary, 25th February 1857; quoted in Vivien Noakes, Edward Lear 1812-1888, London, 1985, p. 114). This time he travelled up the Nile as far south as the second cataract just beyond Wadi Halfa and after he returned home he used his sketches and colour notes as preparatory studies for a number of oils including the present work. Here, the glazes of pure paint capture the brilliance of the light which Lear had so carefully studied.

This painting was executed after 1871, when Lear settled in San Remo.

Provenance:
Frances Braham, Lady Waldegrave and her husband Chichester Fortescue, Lord Carlingford
Constance Braham, Lady Strachey (by descent from the above)
Lord O’Hagan M.E.P. (by descent from the above; sale: Sotheby’s, London, 3 November 1993, lot 22)
John, Lord D’Ayton (purchased at the above sale); thence by descent to the present owners.

Sotheby’s.