Edward Lear

Signed and dated l.r.: Edward Lear. Del 1842, inscribed l.l.: Villa Adriana., pencil heightened with white
24 x 36.7 cm.; 9 3/8 x 14 3/8 inches

Provenance
Phillip’s, London, 11 November 1997, lot 45; Private collection U.K. until 2023

£8500

Lear 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.