Edward Lear

Signed with monogram l.r., inscribed l.l.: near Calikut., watercolour heightened with touches of bodycolourProvenanceFranklin Lushington (1823-1901) and thence by descentLear was invited to India by his friend and patron Lord Northbrook who was appointed Viceroy in 1871, and his journey there was the last and longest of his life. He was overwhelmed by the colour and vitality of India and enjoyed the bustle of Viceregal life.Calicut, or present-day Kozhikode, is on the Malabar coast in Kerala and was a centre of the Indian spice trade. Edward Lear arrived there in October 1874, just as the monsoon began. He was warned about the dangers of contracting fever but stayed, despite the pouring rain, until the skies were clear enough to draw. He described the roads around the city as “of such redundant beauty one can hardly dream.” Franklin Lushington, Lear’s close friend and first owner of this drawing, was the son of Edmund Henry Lushington. He was appointed judge to the Supreme Court of Justice in the Ionian Islands in 1855 and Lear went with him to live in Corfu. They first met in Malta in 1849, where Franklin’s elder brother Henry was Chief Secretary to the government. On his death, Lear left all his papers to Lushington, who later destroyed most of them.

Signed l.c.: E. Lear, pencil with watercolour, pen and black ink and touches of gold17.7 x 23 cm.; 7 x 9 inchesThese charming, quirky drawings are characteristic early works by Lear, dating from the late 1820s or early 1830s when he was establishing himself as an ornithological artist. They relate to a group of drawings which Lear gave to Mrs Godfrey Wentworth, who supported his employment by the Zoological Society in 1831, and whom he credited with launching him as an artist. They are imaginary, fanciful subjects drawn with not a little humour, resembling the stylised watercolours of birds painted on late eighteenth century porcelain. Robert McCracken Peck has made the interesting suggestion that Lear and his sister Ann may have been thinking of approaching ceramics companies with them (see Robert McCracken Peck, The Natural History of Edward Lear, 2016, pp. 27-9).Two surviving family albums from the late 1820s, containing a mixture of similar natural history subjects by Edward Lear and his sisters Ann and Sarah, are in the collection of the Houghton Library, Harvard University (MS Typ 55.4 and 55.27).Sir Edward Strachey was a man of letters and friend of Lear’s, who wrote an introduction to Nonsense Songs in 1895. He lived at Sutton Court, Chew Magna in Somerset and was a neighbour of Lear’s close friend Chichester Fortescue, the Liberal politician whom Lear first met in Rome in 1845.

Signed l.l.: E. Lear, pencil with watercolour23 x 17.7 cm.; 9 x 7 inchesThese charming, quirky drawings are characteristic early works by Lear, dating from the late 1820s or early 1830s when he was establishing himself as an ornithological artist. They relate to a group of drawings which Lear gave to Mrs Godfrey Wentworth, who supported his employment by the Zoological Society in 1831, and whom he credited with launching him as an artist. They are imaginary, fanciful subjects drawn with not a little humour, resembling the stylised watercolours of birds painted on late eighteenth century porcelain. Robert McCracken Peck has made the interesting suggestion that Lear and his sister Ann may have been thinking of approaching ceramics companies with them (see Robert McCracken Peck, The Natural History of Edward Lear, 2016, pp. 27-9).Two surviving family albums from the late 1820s, containing a mixture of similar natural history subjects by Edward Lear and his sisters Ann and Sarah, are in the collection of the Houghton Library, Harvard University (MS Typ 55.4 and 55.27).Sir Edward Strachey was a man of letters and friend of Lear’s, who wrote an introduction to Nonsense Songs in 1895. He lived at Sutton Court, Chew Magna in Somerset and was a neighbour of Lear’s close friend Chichester Fortescue, the Liberal politician whom Lear first met in Rome in 1845.

Signed l.r.: E. Lear, pencil with watercolour and touches of gold23 x 17.7 cm.; 9 x 7 inchesProvenance (for all the bird drawings)Sir Edward Strachey, Bt., (1812-1901) and by descent to the previous ownersThe drawings are available individually or as a groupThese charming, quirky drawings are characteristic early works by Lear, dating from the late 1820s or early 1830s when he was establishing himself as an ornithological artist. They relate to a group of drawings which Lear gave to Mrs Godfrey Wentworth, who supported his employment by the Zoological Society in 1831, and whom he credited with launching him as an artist. They are imaginary, fanciful subjects drawn with not a little humour, resembling the stylised watercolours of birds painted on late eighteenth century porcelain. Robert McCracken Peck has made the interesting suggestion that Lear and his sister Ann may have been thinking of approaching ceramics companies with them (see Robert McCracken Peck, The Natural History of Edward Lear, 2016, pp. 27-9).Two surviving family albums from the late 1820s, containing a mixture of similar natural history subjects by Edward Lear and his sisters Ann and Sarah, are in the collection of the Houghton Library, Harvard University (MS Typ 55.4 and 55.27).Sir Edward Strachey was a man of letters and friend of Lear’s, who wrote an introduction to Nonsense Songs in 1895. He lived at Sutton Court, Chew Magna in Somerset and was a neighbour of Lear’s close friend Chichester Fortescue, the Liberal politician whom Lear first met in Rome in 1845.

Signed l.l.: E. Lear, pencil with watercolour, gum arabic and pen and black ink17.7 x 23 cm.; 7 x 9 inchesThese charming, quirky drawings are characteristic early works by Lear, dating from the late 1820s or early 1830s when he was establishing himself as an ornithological artist. They relate to a group of drawings which Lear gave to Mrs Godfrey Wentworth, who supported his employment by the Zoological Society in 1831, and whom he credited with launching him as an artist. They are imaginary, fanciful subjects drawn with not a little humour, resembling the stylised watercolours of birds painted on late eighteenth century porcelain. Robert McCracken Peck has made the interesting suggestion that Lear and his sister Ann may have been thinking of approaching ceramics companies with them (see Robert McCracken Peck, The Natural History of Edward Lear, 2016, pp. 27-9).Two surviving family albums from the late 1820s, containing a mixture of similar natural history subjects by Edward Lear and his sisters Ann and Sarah, are in the collection of the Houghton Library, Harvard University (MS Typ 55.4 and 55.27).Sir Edward Strachey was a man of letters and friend of Lear’s, who wrote an introduction to Nonsense Songs in 1895. He lived at Sutton Court, Chew Magna in Somerset and was a neighbour of Lear’s close friend Chichester Fortescue, the Liberal politician whom Lear first met in Rome in 1845.

Extensively inscribed and dated in pencil and in pen and brown ink: Quarries of Assouan AM 11.30- 1 PM January 27.1867 all one color [sic] pinky drab oker [sic], numbered (242) and with further colour notes, pen and brown ink and watercolour over pencil heightened with white29 x 53 cm.; 11 3/8 x 20 ¾ inchesProvenanceMrs R.K. Judges;The Fine Art Society, January 1993, where bought byMartin Davies (1924-2023)This beautifully drawn watercolour dates from Lear’s second trip up the Nile and his third visit to Egypt in the winter of 1866-1867, when he travelled with his Canadian cousin, Archie Jones. The men met in Luxor and visited Esneh, Edfu and Denderah, and had reached Philae by the end of January. Lear found his cousin irritating due to his habit of whistling and his lack of enthusiasm for the temples.It was nevertheless a productive trip for the artist, who made many drawings. He was particularly interested in the country between the First and Second Cataracts which was new to him. Another drawing from this trip dating from 30 January of the first Cataract is numbered 267 (formerly in the collection of Dayton International), indicating that he produced twenty-five drawings in 3 days. He wrote to Lady Waldegrave on 9th March 1867 that the Nubian desert was, ‘a sad, stern, uncompromising landscape, dark ashy purple lines of hills, piles of granite rocks, fringes of palm, and ever and anon astonishing ruins of oldest temples’ (Vivien Noakes, Edward Lear: Selected Letters, London, 1988, pp. 208-209).This detailed view accurately depicts the ancient granite quarries at Aswan mined by the ancient Egyptians. A line of unfinished carved granite can be seen lying in the sand in the background. When the construction of the Aswan Dam began in 1960, it became apparent that the ancient temples and surrounding area would be submerged and destroyed by the rising waters of the newly created Lake Nasser. UNESCO led an international fund-raising campaign to relocate them to higher ground by 1968.Martin Davies (1924-2023) was the President of the Egypt Society of Bristol, who visited and photographed the second cataract twice in 1960s before the Aswan Dam was moved. He amassed an interesting collection of views of Egypt.

Pen and brown ink and watercolour, inscribed with pencil numbers l.r.4 x 11.6 cm.; 1 5/8 x 4 5/8 inchesLear’s diary of 5th May 1864 records that he was sketching at the Lake of Kourna, ‘very fine and Cumberlandish- in a nook at the foot of very high hills…11.15 Lunch is done: the wrens and titmice still sing-still. Zeriff [Turkish armed servant] hubblebubbles. The four Cretan creturs [sic] sleep, and the sun comes over the oak tree I lie beneath so I must move. Very delightful hours…’

Inscribed and dated l.r.: Patti 4 July 1847, inscribed: sloping towards x which is a very deep stuffy vegetable dell and with colour notes, numbered 212, pen and brown ink with pencil20.2 x 44.5 cm.; 8 1/8 x 17 ½ inches, framed size 37 x 60.5 cm.; 14 1/2 x 23 3/4 inchesProvenanceMary Ann Streeter (1932-2023), Boston, by descent until 2025£5500Lear travelled to Sicily between May 3 and July 15, 1847, with John Joshua Proby, later the 2nd Earl of Carysfort. They were to make two other tours together that year, to Calabria and Naples.Patti is a village in North-Eastern Sicily in the province of Messina between Milazzo and Capo Calvà, which includes the ancient Graeco-Roman village of Tindari with its famous Sanctuary.After graduating from Radcliffe College (Harvard University) with a degree in Fine Arts, Mary Ann Streeter moved to London for a year and started buying Lear watercolours in the late 1950s. She built up a large collection of Lear’s work.

Dated l.l.: 1 PM. Jan 2 1867, numbered l.r.: 130 and inscribed with colour notes, pen and brown ink and watercolour heightened with bodycolour on buff paper8 x 24.5 cm.; 3 1/8 x 9 5/8 inchesProvenanceSpink (K3/4703)This watercolour dates from Lear’s second trip up the Nile and his third visit to Egypt in the winter of 1866-1867, when he travelled with his Canadian cousin, Archie Jones. The men met in Luxor and visited Esneh, Edfu and Denderah, and had reached Philae by the end of January. Lear found his cousin irritating due to his habit of whistling and his lack of enthusiasm for the temples.

Inscribed and dated l.l.: Monte Generoso/1879, and further inscribed with colour notes, pen and brown ink over pencil25 x 51.5 cm; 9 7/8 x 20 1/4 inches£8500Lear returned to Varese and Monte Generoso, on the border between Italy and Switzerland between lakes Lugano and Como, from June 29 to September 22 1879. He stayed at Mendrisio, across the Swiss border in Ticino. He enjoyed sketching the views south across the plains, as in the present watercolour and the mountains stretching up to the Alps. Marianne North the botanical artist came to Como towards the end of his stay and they made a trip to Monte Civita near Monza together.This drawing is taken from a similar vantage point to that of an oil of the same subject dated 1880 in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum (WA196.39).An unpublished poem “The Lays of the Octopods’ about the perils of mass tourism at Monte Generoso has recently come to light in the British Library.

Signed and dated l.r.: Edward Lear. Del 1842, inscribed l.l.: Villa Adriana., pencil heightened with white24 x 36.7 cm.; 9 3/8 x 14 3/8 inchesProvenancePhillip’s, London, 11 November 1997, lot 45; Private collection U.K. until 2023£8500Lear set out for Italy in the summer of 1837. For most of the next ten years the artist wintered in Rome and toured other parts of Italy during the summer. This crisply drawn view with white highlights of the Villa Adriana is a fine example of the artist’s pencil drawing, which he favoured early in his Italian soujourn and shows the influence of James Duffield Harding.A related drawing of the Villa Adriana in upright format is in the collection of the British Museum (P_1892-1119-15). The same figures can be seen in the foreground and the compositional emphasis is on the trees on the right of the composition.Situated on a low plain on the slopes of the Tiburtine Hills, Hadrian’s Villa was the largest villa of the Roman Empire, built over an area of more than one hundred hectares.

Signed with monogram l.r., watercolour over traces of pencil, inscribed on backboard: Lady Peyton /40 Wilton Crescent10.2 x 20.4 cm.; 4 1/8 x 8 inches, framed size 28 x 37 cm.; 11 x 14 1/2 inchesProvenanceLady Peyton, 40 Wilton Crescent, London;The Hon. Dorothy Gibbs, and thence by family descent;Christie’s, 17 November 2005, lot 103£5800In 1837, with financial assistance from his patron, Lord Derby (1775 -1851), the twenty-five-year-old Lear set off for Rome, where he was based for the following decade, which was a formative phase of his artistic development. During the summer months he would travel further afield in Italy, returning to Rome in the winter.Lear painted an oil sketch of this subject around 1839-1840, see Lady Strachey, The Letters of Edward Lear, 1907, p. 341.St John Lateran is considered to be the oldest church and Archbasilica in the world, founded by Pope Melchiade in 324 on the ruins of the villa of the Laterani family.

Inscribed and dated l.l.: Val Montone-17 Oct.br 1840., inscribed with artist’s notes, graphite26 x 39.7 cm; 10 1/4 x 15 5/8 inchesProvenanceSir Robin Darwin, R.A.;Lady Darwin;Spink, where bought by the present owner;Private collection, U.K.ExhibitedRoyal Academy, London, Edward Lear 1812-1888, 1985, no. 15i, ill p. 92Lear went to Italy in the summer of 1837. For most of the next ten years the artist wintered in Rome and toured other parts of Italy during the summer. He spent the winter months in and around Rome making frequent visits to the Campagna. He wrote in a letter to his sister Ann that Val Montone was: one of the most elegant campagna towns and very curious: it is in a deep dell in the Latin valley- but rises on a mound- crowned with a superb church and castle-though the town itself is wretchedly poor…Fine trees are all around Val Montone- and it is altogether a delightfully quiet place (recorded in the 1930s typescript of the lost manuscript of Lear’s letters to Ann, 11 October 1838).Another view of Val Montone is included in Views in Rome and its Environs, 1841, plate 25.Sir Robert Vere ‘Robin' Darwin KCB CBE RA RSA PRWA NEAC (1910 – 1974) was a British artist and Rector of the Royal College of Art. He was the son of the golf writer Bernard Darwin and his wife the engraver Elinor Monsell and a great-grandson of the naturalist Charles Darwin.

Signed, dated and inscribed l.r.: Napoli./EdwardLear./7.07.1840.-, pencil with white on blue paper17 x 24 cmProvenancePrivate Collection, London until 2017Lear lived in Rome from December 1837 until 1848 as part of an international community of artists, a happy and productive time in his artistic development. During the summers he travelled to other parts of Italy. This characteristic, crisp drawing heightened with white on blue paper is typical of his work of the period.

KT487Signed with monogram l.l., watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour and gum arabic25.5 x 40 cm.; 10 x 15 ¾ inchesProvenanceSir Sacheverell Sitwell, Bt. (1897-1988);Francis Sitwell (1935-2004);By descent at Weston Hall, Northamptonshire until 2021Lear was invited to India by his friend and patron Lord Northbrook who was appointed Viceroy in 1871, and his journey there was the last and longest of his life. He was overwhelmed by the colour and vitality of India and enjoyed the bustle of Viceregal life. After leaving Lord Northbrook, Benares was one of the first places Lear visited, arriving on 12th December 1873.Lear describes Benares in his ‘Indian Journal’, on December 13-14 1873,(ed. Ray Murphy, 1953, pp. 45-6):‘Nothing short of a moving opera scene can give any idea of the intense and wonderful colour and detail of these Benares river banks…‘Got a boat, a large one, for on one can have the last idea of this Indian city’s splendour without this arrangement. Utterly wonderful is the rainbow-like edging of the water with thousands of bathers reflected in the river. Then the colour of the temples, the strangeness of the huge umbrellas and the inexpressibly multitudinous details of architecture costume etc. Drew, more or less, as I was slowly row’d up and down the river…Howe well I remember the views of Benares by Daniell, R.A.; pallid, gray, sad solemn. I had always supposed this a place of melancholy or at least a staid and soberly-coloured spot, a gray record of bygone days,. Instead, I find it one of the most abundantly bruyant, and startlingly radiant of places full of bustle and movement. ‘This drawing used to hang in Sir Sacheverell Sitwell’s study and dressing room at Weston Hall, Northamptonshire, where he did all his writing.

Inscribed and dated l.l.: Baths of Titus.Feb 4 40, pen and brown ink over pencil8.6 x 12.4 cm; 3 3/8 x 4 7/8 inches

Inscribed and dated l.r.: Amalphi./8 June. 1844, pen and brown ink on buff paper50 x 36 cmLear lived in Rome from 1841 until 1848 as part of an international community of artists. He had a comfortable income, as sales of his work went well. During the summers he travelled to other parts of Italy, producing fluent drawings such as the present example. His love of nonsense can be seen in the spelling of ‘Amalphi’.Provenance: Nicolas Powell (1920–86); thence by descent until 2017

KT486Signed with monogram l.l. and dated 1875, watercolour over pencil heightened with white25.5 x 39.7 cm.; 10 x 15 ¾ inchesProvenanceLady d’Avigdor Goldsmid;Caroline Stroude;Francis Sitwell (1935-2004);By descent at Weston Hall, Northamptonshire until 2021Hardwar, also called Gange-dward, the Ganges Gate, lies on the right bank of the Ganges, where the Ganges exits the Himalayan foothills North-East of Delhi. It is one of the seven sacred cities of the Hindu and an important pilgrimage site, which hosts the Kumbh Mela festival once every twelve years. A dip in the river Ganges here is believed to wash away one's sins and according to Hindu mythology, it is one of the four places where the drops of elixir ('Amrit') were accidentally spilled by the celestial bird Garuda.Lear arrived there on 2 April 1874 and stayed with Mr Jenkinson, a relative of his friend the Viceroy, Lord Northbrook, who had invited him to visit India. Lear was enchanted by the city, and wrote in his ‘Indian Journal’, ed. Ray Murphy, 1953, p. 113:“The beauty of the pagodas and shrines and houses here is indescribable, and the whole scene is perhaps the most beautiful I have seen anywhere in India’.On 5 April Lear drew the ghats (op. cit. p. 114):“The tall silver gray temples in shade, a side bit here and there catching bright light, are really beautiful, often half seen through a veil of light green or yellow foliage. …The colours of dresses amazing, women in apricot coloured shawls, rose coloured, scarlet, brown, all throwing flowers into the river.’….the mountains came out comparatively clear before lunch, so that I could really get an outline of the upper range, snows and all.’ He and his manservant Giorgio left Hardwar on 6 April.Francis Sitwell, the businessman and publicist, was the son of Sir Sacheverell Sitwell, 6th Bt and his wife Georgia.

Signed with monogram l.r., inscribed l.l.: Pentedatilo, watercolour and bodycolour on laid paper11.4 x 20.9 cm; 4½ x 8¼ inchesProvenance: Private collection, UK, until 2018.Literature: Jasmine Jagger, ‘Moving Lines’, Apollo, December 2018, pp. 87–91, ill. p. 91.One seem’d all dark and red – a tract of sand,And someone pacing there along,Who paced for ever in a glimmering land,Lit with a low large moon.Alfred, Lord Tennyson, ‘The Palace of Art’Lear’s close friendship of thirty-seven years with Tennyson inspired his ‘Painting=Sympathisations’, a proposed project of three hundred memories tied to three hundred poems, reflections of the relationship between painted word landscapes and written word paintings, described by Jasmine Jagger as open to a kind of synaesthesia. In her opinion, the finest examples of Lear’s poetrypainting can be found in the works he made of Pentedattilo. 1 Lear worked on the project on and off for thirty years, his drawings going through what he described as their egg, chrysalis and caterpillar stages. The final oil, or ‘butterfly’, of the painting of Pentedattilo was given by Lear to Tennyson’s oldest son Hallam and his bride Audrey as a wedding present, and was loved by the poet. Jagger suggests the present watercolour is the closest surviving version of this ‘butterfly’, with a distant speck of a hunched-over heron and its shadow replacing the figure seen in the multiple sketches of the subject. The lightly portrayed moon suggests the passage of time, and the dark lines over the sky have just faded. 2 The artist’s plan to illustrate Tennyson’s poems began to take shape in the summer of 1852, a couple of years after they met. Although their friendship had ups and downs, Lear’s affection for the poet’s wife, Emily, remained constant. Lear enjoyed selecting the lines of Tennyson’s poems on which to base his ‘Poetical Topographical’ project, and he began work on the scheme several times. In 1878 he finally got down to work in earnest, although the project was never completed, and Lear died with unfinished Tennyson canvases in his studio. Pentedattilo is an abandoned town in Calabria on Monte Calvario, a mountain whose shape once resembled that of five fingers: hence the name, from the Greek penta and daktylos (for five and fingers). It was badly damaged by an earthquake in 1783. Lear made a trip through southern Italy in 1847; his diary records his arrival on 30 July, at an elevated plateau whence the whole ‘Toe of Italy’ is finely discernible, a sea of undulating lines of varied forms down to the Mediterranean; a few towns glittered here and there, and towering over the southern extremity of land, a high cluster of rocks, the wild crags of Pentedátilo, particularly arrested our attention . 31. Jasmine Jagger, ‘Moving Lines’, Apollo, December 2018, pp. 87–91, ill. p. 91.2. Ibid.3. Edward Lear in Southern Italy: Journals of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria and the Kingdom of Naples, introduction by Peter Quennell, 1964, p. 41.

Extensively inscribed and dated 25. May 1863 4 P.M., numbered and inscribed on verso: 168/upright/next above lowest, pen and ink and watercolour6.9 x 19.5 cmLear drew this on the steamer Europa which he boarded from the island of Cerigo (present day Kythera) at 12.30 pm on 25 May 1863, having left in bright sunshine and with a rolling sea ‘too much to be pleasant’. His journal suggests that he drew the present drawing either at dinner, or just before, as this is recorded as having been served at 4 pm.See Houghton Library, Harvard University, MS Eng. 797.3, transcribed by Marco Graziani.

Inscribed ‘Etna 5 June 7pm 1864’ and with colour notes, numbered (183) l.r., pen and brown ink and watercolour, inscribed verso next below top/123 up/A (crossed out) A6.7 x 27 cm.; 6 5/8 x 10 ½ inchesProvenanceFine Art Society, where purchased on 30 June 1962 byMiss Rowell, Wylam, Northamptonshire, until 2022The numbering on this drawing suggests that it was done by Lear on his way back from Crete in June 1864. Lear spent seven weeks on the island. His last drawing, done in Hania was numbered 179.The artist first visited Sicily in 1842 and again in 1847 with his travelling companion John Proby. On this occasion he was passing after his travels in Crete.

KT586Inscribed and dated l.l.: 17 April.1864/6.40 PM./Canéa and indistinctly in pencil and numbered l.r.: (15) and again in pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour22.5 x 34.5 cm.; 8 ¾ x 13 ½ inchesProvenanceCradock and Barnard, London;Christie’s, London 6 June 2002, lot 109;Maurice Edward Dear, from whom bought in 2008 byPeter Roberts, until 2023Edward Lear arrived in Crete on 11 April 1864 and stayed until 31 May.His diary tells us that he had a busy day on Sunday 17 April and sketched first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening (see ed. Rowena Fowler, Edward Lear The Cretan Journal, 2012, p. 15).Lear had a characteristically productive time on the island and referred to ‘196 drawings - & a vast number of small bits’ when working on his Cretan sketches in England in the summer of 1864.Peter Roberts was a school master and collector of English watercolours who taught English at Oundle School until his retirement in 2007.

Signed and dated l.r.: Edward Lear del.1839, inscribed l.l.: Capri from above Massa., pencil heightened with white on buff paper26 x 43 cm.; 10 ¼ x 16 7/8 inchesProvenanceEugene Thaw, New York; sold on 26 February 1973 to David Carritt, LondonLear spent his summers at the end of the 1830s travelling in Italy and first drew Massa in the summer of 1838 on 22nd August, a working drawing with extensive colour notes (Christie’s, 16 July 2014, lot 570, 10 x 14 inches). The present drawing relates quite closely to his first sketch. He returned to the subject again in 1840.

Inscribed in pen and brown ink with location in Greek l.r. and dated: 21. May 5 P.M. 1863 and again in pencil and numbered 189, further extensively inscribed with colour notes and comments, pen and brown ink and watercolour over pencil, inscribed and numbered verso: 159/Lon…?32 x 48 cm; 12 1/2 x 18 7/8 inchesThis view is taken looking across the northern part of the village, from northeast towards the southwest. Mt. Myrmingari can be seen in the centre background, and Aghia Elessa is the rise to the left.Lear’s extensive journal entry for 21st May 1863 finds him rising at 4 am and drawing much of the morning. After a lunch of cold fowl, old lettuce, ‘biled’ eggs and bad wine he continued climbing, enjoying the views until he reached the house of Pruestos where he sketched on the terrace in a high wind until 5 pm and lodged for the night. He noted that the Potamite women were tall and seems to have drawn one in the foreground of this drawing.Lear undertook a tour of the Ionian Islands (other than Corfu) from 3rd April to 4th June 1863, shortly before the British left the Ionian Islands and their incorporation into Greece in 1864. He used the drawings for a book, ‘Views in the Seven Ionian Islands’, which was published in London in December 1863.

Signed and dated l.lr.: Edward Lear del./1838, pencil and black chalk heightened with white on green paper24.7 x 40.5 cm.; 9 ¾ x 16 inchesProvenancePrivate collection, U.K. until 2025Lear set out for Italy in the summer of 1837. For most of the next ten years the artist wintered in Rome and toured other parts of Italy during the summer. This delicately drawn sheet shows the influence of James Duffield Harding. The carefully drawn trees are probably in the Roman Campagna.