More Peter Newell silliness.
No Edward Lear, for a change.
I suspect this manuscript chapbook was a prototype for Peter Newell’s 1909 Jungle Jangle, a mild satire of Theodore Roosevelt.
This “untitled book with cut-out eyes” is available on the Yale University Library website, together with other illustrations.
Visit my collection of (interactive) Peter Newell Books at nonsenselit.org.
Edward Lear, Suda Bay, Crete.
Signed with initials and titled (lower left). Watercolour on paper. 17.5 x 36.8cm (6 7/8 x 14 1/2in).
Provenance
The Parker Gallery, London.
Private collection, Athens.
Edward Lear, Mount Athos.
Signed with initials and inscribed (lower left). Watercolour on paper. 10 x 20cm (3 15/16 x 7 7/8in).
Provenance
The Parker Gallery, London.
Private collection, Athens.
Edward Lear, The Quarries of Assouan, Egypt.
Inscribed Quarries of Assouan / Am-11.30 1. pm / February 27. 1867. lower left; further inscribed with extensive artists colour notes. Pen and brown ink over pencil, heightened with watercolour and bodycolour. Unframed: 28.9 by 53cm., 11¾ by 20¾in. Framed: 54.7 by 77.5cm., 21½ by 30½in.
Provenance
Mrs R.K. Judges
The Fine Art Society, London, by 1993
Acquired from the above by Martin R. Davies, Bristol
This large-scale on the spot drawing dates from Lear’s second and final Nile trip of 1867. Lear had arrived in Cairo at the beginning of the year. He quickly moved onto Luxor, where he met up this cousin Archie Jones. The pair travelled down the Nile where they reached their most southern point, the second cataract, on 4 February.
They stopped at Aswan for two days and Lear made a series of drawings, including the present work which shows the ancient granite quarries. The drawing is topographically very accurate, its most important feature being the unfinished obelisk shown in the background.
Edward Lear, Dahr el Bayree, Thebes.
Inscribed Thebes. Dahr el Bayree. 19 Feby. 1854. lower right; further inscribed with extensive artist’s notes, inscribed No. 12 single verso. Pen and brown and pencil and watercolour. Unframed: 28.9 by 51.1cm., 11¼ by 20in. Framed: 52.8 by 74cm., 20⅝ by 29⅛in.
Provenance
Spink, London
The Fine Art Society, London, by 1988
Acquired from the above by the late owner
Exhibited
London, The Fine Art Society, A Centenary Exhibition, 1988
Lear visited Thebes in February 1854, spending ten days sketching the temples, ruins and landscape, as part of his journey along the Nile. In the present drawing Lear has his back to the river and looks west towards the Thebian Hills. His inscription Dabr El Bayree, would seem to refer to ‘Dayr al-Baḥrīa’, a nearby 7th century monastery.
Edward Lear, “And I will See, Before I Die, The Palms and Temples of the South.”
Signed with initials EL lower right. Oil on canvas. Unframed: 48.5 by 75.5cm., 19 by 29¾in. Framed: 63 by 89.8cm., 24¾ by 35¼in.
Provenance
Commissioned in 1856 by Chichester Fortesque and thence by descent to Charles Towneley Strachey, Lord O’Hagan M.E.P. (his sale: Sotheby’s, London, 3 November 1993, lot 21)
Purchased from the above by Martin R. Davies, Bristol
Literature
Lady Strachey (ed.), Letters of Edward Lear, London, 1907, p. 35
According to Lady Strachey, this painting is a replica of a work of the same title, painted for Sir John Simeon in 1856 (possibly the smaller Philae on the Nile, Christie’s, London, 15 December 2011, lot 57). It was completed in the same year for Chichester Fortesque and both pictures were probably based on a watercolour dated 1854 (Christie’s, London, 15 December 2010, lot 72). Lear was accustomed to reuse this title from Tennyson for his views of Philae.
This picture was commissioned by Chichester Fortesque (1823-1898) who Lear first met in Rome in 1848 when Fortesque described the artist as; ‘a delightful companion, full of nonsense, puns, riddles, everything in the shape of fun, and brimming with an intense appreciation of nature as well as history… I don’t know when I have met any one to whom I took so great a liking.’ (Lady Strachey, The Letters of Edward Lear, London, 1907, p. xxv) (Fig.1). Fortesque was Member of Parliament for Louth and later became Chief Secretary for Ireland, President of the Board of Trade and Lord Privy Seal. He was given a barony in 1874, taking the title Lord Carlingford. In 1871 he married Lady Waldegrave whose niece, Constance, Lady Stachey (Strachie) published Lear’s correspondence with Lord Carlingford and Countess Waldegrave.
Edward Lear, The Island of Philae, above the First Cataract on the Nile, from the South, Afternoon.
Signed and dated E. Lear 1855 lower right; inscribed, signed and dated Philae/ Edward Lear 1855/ I will see before I die/ The Palms and Temples of the south on a label on the reverse. Oil on canvas. Unframed: 90.5 by 148.5cm., 35¾ by 58½in. Framed: 106 by 163.5cm., 41¾ by 64¼in.
Provenance
Purchased from the artist by William Neville Esq. of Highbury, with whom it remained until his death in 1874 when it was bequeathed to the artist in memory of their friendship
Sale: Spink & Son, London, 29 November 1976
Purchased from the above by Martin R. Davies, Bristol
Literature
Lady Strachey, The Letters of Edward Lear, London, 1907, p. 314, no. 116
Amelia Edwards, A Thousand Miles up the Nile, London, 1974, illustrated in reverse on the cover
Vivien Noakes, Edward Lear 1812-1888, London, 1985, pp. 146-147, illustrated p. 38
Exhibited
London, Royal Academy, 1856, no. 625
Royal Academy, London, Edward Lear 1812-1888, no. 52
Edward Lear, The Pyramids near Cairo.
Inscribed and dated near Cairo. Jany. 9. 1849 lower left; inscribed a mother of Mud. lower centre; numbered 7 lower right. Pen and brown ink and watercolour over traces of pencil. Unframed: 17.1 by 50.7cm., 6¾ by 20in. Framed: 41.5 by 73.2cm., 16¼ by 28¾in.
Provenance
Private collection, USA
Sale: London, Sotheby’s, 29 November 1973, lot 178
Leger Galleries, London, by 1975
Acquired from the above by Martin R. Davies, Bristol, April 1975
Exhibited
Sheffield, Graves Art Gallery, Edward Lear. Watercolours, Oils and Drawings, 1988
London, The Fine Art Society, A Centenary Exhibition, 1988
This drawing was created on the 9 January 1849, three days after Lear’s arrival in Cairo. He had just spent nine months travelling in the eastern Mediterranean and he had long wanted to experience Egypt. In Cairo he met his friend John Cross and together they set out by camel on the route from Cairo to Suez. Lear fell ill in Suez and this curtailed his plans, ultimately forcing him to abandon his travels in the region. He was, however, hugely inspired by the landscapes and people of Egypt and he would return on three further occasions.
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