Edward Lear, Sacromonte 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.
Edward Lear, Agia Paraskevi, 1857.
Pen and brown ink and watercolor over traces of pencil on paper. Inscribed lower left Agia Paraskevi / 13 April 1857 / 11 1/2 AM (lower left); further inscribed with Artist’s notes. 13 3/4 x 19 1/2 in. (34.9 x 49.5 cm.)
Edward Lear traveled widely throughout his life, visiting Italy, Greece, and the Middle East. He eventually settled in Sanremo, on the northwestern Italian coast, in the 1870s, at a villa he named “Villa Tennyson.” Lear aspired to visit and sketch all the Greek lands, and in April 1857, he made a short trip from Corfu, where he wintered from 1855 to 1857, to the mainland. He had already visited some of the places before, in 1848, 1849 and 1856, and had published an account, with lithographic plates, in his Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania, &c. (London: Richard Bentley, 1851).
The present work was created during Lear’s three-week tour through northwestern Greece. Here he depicts a view north of the village of Monodrendi and the Monastery of Agia Paraskevi. The monastery is just out of sight, beyond an outcrop. The artist described the dramatic scenery in a letter, dated April 27, 1857, to his sister Ann:
“On the 13th we went to Manassís, & M?nodéndron, 2 large towns near a monastery [Agía Paraskeví] placed most surprisingly amid precipices of tremendous magnitude,—on a great gorge of Pápingo. The rocks rise clear—perpendicularly—more than 1,500 feet from the river, & the whole thing looked more like a dream than a reality.”
The watercolor captures the changing light on the complex rock formations and includes distant figures on a path and a woman in local costume in the foreground. The small figures emphasize the sheer, plunging cliffs and the intense majesty of the spectacular site.
Edward Lear, Monte Generoso – Bellavista.
Pencil, pen and brown ink. 9.5cm x 17cm (3.75in x 6.75in).
Edward Lear, Desert of Sinai.
Watercolor on paper. 4 h x 8 w in (10 x 20 cm). Signed to lower left ‘EL’.
Provenance
The Drawing Room, Princeton, NJ
Estate of Alfred Bush, former Curator of Western Americana, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
Edward Lear, A Hummingbird.
Pen and ink, watercolour, bodycolour and gum arabic on paper, signed lower left, 15cm x 12cm.
Edward Lear, Monte Generoso, Bella Vista.
Signed, inscribed with title and dated ‘5.30pm, 9 Sept 1881,’ pencil, pen and brown ink. 9.5cm x 17cm (3.75in x 6.75in)
Edward Lear, Mahabalipooram, Coromandel Coast.
Watercolour, signature and date lower left, approx. 24.5cm x 49cm.
31. July. 1877
My dear Lady Waldegrave,
I shall trouble you with this gnoat because the chances are that I shall not see you again before I go out of England, – if, (as I hope you may,) you will make a northerly tour to Whitby, Filey, Bridlington, & Scarborough. And for myself, I have to remain with my nose at the grindstone to finish one of the two large Northbrook pictures, so as to take it down to Stratten with as little delay as possible. After witch, & another visit to my sister, I shall go south, like the swollers [picture] So I wish you goodbye, with many good wishes for a pleasant Autumn, & many thanks for much kindness. Both you & Chichester have always been very kind to me.
But, unless you both come to Italy, I fear it will be a long time before I see you again, if at all.
Velieve me
Your’s sincerely,
Edward Lear.
Edward Lear, Villefranche-sur-Mer, Côte d’Azur, France.
Inscribed lower left: Villefranche / 29. January 1865 10.45 AM, and with further colour notes. Pen and brown ink and watercolour. 229 by 318 mm.
Provenance
The Rev. Percy Mordaunt Barnard (1868-1941) and his wife Alice, née Barnand, Thence by descent to their daughter, Nea Morin (1905-1986), Thence by descent to the present owners.
Villefranche is a fortified port in the Alpes Maritimes, around three miles east of Nice. Lear took lodgings in Nice during the winter of 1864-5 and made many sketches at Villefranche during this time. Other on-the-spot drawings, showing the scene from this viewpoint, include one executed on the 30 November 1864 (see London, Christie’s, 5 June 2006, lot 63 – £33,600) and another which was drawn on the morning of 5 February 1865 (see London, Christie’s, 27 July 2020, lot 104 – £25,000).
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