A Blog of Bosh

Edward Lear, Dendera, with a View of the Nile.
Inscribed and dated ‘Dendera/9.15./16 Jan^y.1867′ (lower left); numbered ‘176’ (lower right); variously annotated throughout. Pen, ink and wash. 17 x 50.5cm (6 11/16 x 19 7/8in).

Provenance
Anon. sale, Sotheby’s, London, 17 November 1988, lot 187.
Spink, London.
Private collection, UK.

The present lot was executed during Lear’s third and final visit to Egypt, between December 1866 and March 1867. During January Lear visited Dendera – a Temple 40 miles downriver from Luxor – and produced a series of numbered drawings. For similar examples see a pair of works sold Bonhams, London, 26 September 2019 (numbered 170 & 175); Christie’s, London, 2 April 1996, lot 100 (numbered 169) and Bonhams, London, 6 December 2012, lot 102 (numbered 153).

As common with Lear’s drawings, various inscriptions and colour notes are scattered throughout the present lot (for example ‘tawny’ and ‘sandy’). In the middle foreground is commentary that the ‘Pylon [is] “very old” & crumbly’. Further in the distance, scribbled over an expanse of land is the observation that prior to reaching the Nile, there is a ‘tawny plain of undulating dust’.

Bonhams.

Edward Lear, Philae, Egypt.
Pen and brown ink and watercolour over pencil, on laid paper; inscribed lower left: Philae / 2pm / 30 Jany.1867, numbered lower right: (273) and further inscribed with colour notes. 280 by 530 mm.

Provenance
With Agnew’s, London,
by whom sold to John, Lord D’Ayton (1922-2003);
thence by descent to the present owners

Exhibited
London, Sotheby’s, Edward Lear, An Exhibition of Works by Edward Lear from the D’Ayton International Collection, assembled by John D’Ayton, 2004, no. 22

The present watercolour is dated 30^th January 1867. Taken from the rocky banks of the Nile to the west of the island of Philae, Lear appears to delight in his depiction of the dramatic landscape, while the Ptolomaic Temple of Isis and the Kiosk of Trajan are dwarfed by towering cliffs.
When Lear had last visited Philae, thirteen years previously, he spent ten days exploring the island and set up camp in the Temple of Isis. He developed a strong attachment to the area and described it as ‘more like a real fairy island than anything else I can compare it to. It is very small, and was formerly all covered with temples, of which the ruins of five or six now only remain. The great Temple of Isis, on the terrace of which I am now writing, is so extremely wonderful that no words can give the least idea of it. The Nile is divided here into several channels, by other rocky islands, and beyond you see the desert and the great granite hills of Assouan’.¹ On his second trip to Philae in January 1867 Lear was even more impressed, describing it as ‘more beautiful than ever.’ ²
Lear executed over twenty oil paintings of Philae. One, which was clearly based on the present sheet, was sold at Sotheby’s, London on the 24^th April 2012 (£37,250).
1. V. Noakes, Edward Lear Selected Letter, Oxford 1988, p. 124
2. V. Noakes, Edward Lear Selected Letter, Oxford 1988, p. 216

See this.

Sotheby’s.

Edward Lear, Philae, Egypt.
Pen and brown ink and watercolor over pencil; inscribed lower left: Philae / 8. AM. / Feby. [sic] 19. 1867 and further inscribed with artist’s notes . 87 by 251 mm.

This drawing was created on the spot in the early morning of 19^thJanuary 1867.  Lear shows the island of Philae, with the Ptolemaic Temple of Isis and the Kiosk of Trajan, surrounded by the calm waters of the Nile.
Philae occupied a special place in Lear’s conscience. He first visited the region in 1857, when he spent ten days exploring the ancient site.  In a letter home, he affectionately described it as being ‘more like a real fairy island than anything else I can compare it to.’¹  When he returned in January 1867, he was equally excited, noting that ‘it is more beautiful than ever!’²
1.  V. Noakes, Edward Lear – Selected Letters, Oxford 1988, p. 124
2.  ibid., p. 216

Sotheby’s.