Edward Lear, Figures Loading a Barge (1837)

Posted on October 20, 2020 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear, Figures Loading a Barge.
Signed ‘Edward Lear del’ (lower left), dated ‘Oct. 1837’ (lower right) and numbered 53.W. (lower right).

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Edward Lear, A Tower in the Campagna, Rome (1846)

Posted on October 19, 2020 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear, A Tower in the Campagna, Rome.
Signed and dated ‘Edward Lear. del./ 1846.’ (lower right).

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Edward Lear, Mount Parnes from Varnava, Greece (1868)

Posted on October 18, 2020 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear, Mount Parnes from Varnava, Greece
Inscribed, dated and numbered ‘Mt. Parnes, from Varnava./ 16. June. 1868/ (39.)’ (lower right) and further inscribed with the artist’s colour notes throughout. Pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour 10 ¼ x 18 ½ in. (26 x 47 cm.).

Provenance
With Leger Galleries, London, June 1971.
Sir Clifford Norton (†); Christie’s, London, 9 April 1991, lot 176.

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Edward Lear, Masada from the Dead Sea

Posted on October 17, 2020 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear, Masada from the Dead Sea.
Signed with monogram (lower right) pencil, pen and brown and blue ink and watercolour, heightened with bodycolour 7 1/8 x 15 in. (18.1 x 38.1 cm.)

Provenance
With the Redfern Gallery, London, where purchased by Norman Bentwich (†);
Sotheby’s, London, 22 March 1979, lot 110
With Martyn Gregory, London.
With Davis and Langdale, New York, where purchased by Mrs Vincent Astor.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London, 3 July 2013, lot 190.

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Edward Lear, The Pass of Monte d’Oro, C0rsica

Posted on October 16, 2020 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear, The Pass of Monte d’Oro, Corsica.
Signed with monogram (lower left) and inscribed ‘Snow peaks exact & sharp off cloud/ Foliage all Beech. on turf/ small stream in foreground (verso).

Provenance
Frances, Countess Waldegrave and her husband, Chichester Fortescue.
Anonymous sale; Christie’s, London, 12 November 1996, lot 96.
Anonymous sale; Christie’s, London, 9 June 2005, lot 101.

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Edward Lear, Etna (1864)

Posted on October 11, 2020 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear, Etna.
Inscribed Etna 5 June 1864, watercolour with pen and ink
4 x 11cm.

[Drawn while getting back from Crete.]

The Saleroom.

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Edward Lear, Dendera, with a View of the Nile (1867)

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear, Dendera, with a View of the Nile.
Inscribed and dated ‘Dendera/9.15./16 Jany.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.

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The Owl and the Pussy-cat at 150 in St Leonards-on-Sea

Posted on September 29, 2020 by Marco Graziosi

2021 marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Edward Lear’s “The Owl and the Pussy-cat” and St Leonards-on-Sea devotes its A Town Explores a Book festival, 1-18 April 2021, to Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets, the book in which the poem was first collected.

They have launched a Crowdfunder which ends on 1 October (National Poetry Day) and still need to collect about £2,000 in the next two days. So please help them reach their target, and then visit the town, where Lear stayed for long periods to paint.

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O frabjous day!

Posted on September 27, 2020 by Marco Graziosi

TED Ed has released a fun animated retelling of Lewis Carroll’s epic nonsense poem, Jabberwocky from his classic novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.

Poem by Lewis Carroll, directed by Sjaak Rood.

Dive into Lewis Carroll’s epic nonsense poem, “Jabberwocky” from his novel Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. — As Alice wanders through the dreamscape of Looking-Glass Land in Lewis Carroll’s “Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There,” she happens across a book written in an unintelligible language. Inside, she discovers an epic poem filled with nonsense, fearsome creatures, and whimsical language.

Thanks to GeekTyrant.

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The Owl’s Song

Posted on September 17, 2020 by Marco Graziosi

Music video for Town of Cats‘s “The Owl’s Song,” by Morgan Twiston Davies.

A celebration of Edward Lear’s “The Owl and the Pussy-cat,” embracing nonsense and following life, love, and joy in all directions. The film was traditionally animated, and digitally coloured and composited. Linework was a technical pen and wax pencils, backgrounds were watercolour, oil pastel, and ink. Most of the film was thoroughly planned, but the end segment was improvisational animation to flow alongside the sax solo.

From Cartoon Brew.

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