Edward Lear, Nice.
Watercolour and bodycolour, with pen and sepia ink. 14.2 x 22.5cm; 5½ x 8¾in

Edward Lear’s frail constitution gave him greater comfort when he chose to pass his winters abroad. The warmer climate soothed his bronchitis, asthma, grand mal fits and `the morbids`(probably his term for incipient depression). He visited Nice each year from 1864-1870; the town had become the fashionable winter resort for the wealthy since being ceded by Italy to France in 1860. Within its streets and gardens, Lear found friends and patrons alike.

Despite its climate, landscape and comfort, the South of France was not quite as isolated as Lear may have chosen. In a letter to Holman Hunt, he wrote: ‘If you want to be quiet anywhere for miles round Nice, and sit down to draw – lo! presently, 30 parties of smart young ladies on donkies immediately surround you – and in a twinkling the ground is white with tablecloths, and liveried servants are opening champagne bottles’.

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Fernanda, Marques Granato and Maria Zilda da Cunha, eds. Cradling Nonsense: Moments of an Investigative Undertaking. São Paulo: Universidade de São Paulo. Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas, 2026.

The volume is open access and can be downloaded here: https://doi.org/10.11606/9788575065792.

All the contributions are in Portuguese, with the exception of my essay, “The Visual Logic of Nonsense: Lear, Carroll, and the Invention of Comic Strip Storytelling” (pp. 66–99). The error with the pictures in my essay has now been corrected.

Edward Lear, Autograph Letter Signed, ‘Edward Lear’, Villa Tennyson, [Sanremo, Italy], Monday, no date, 1880s, to Mrs Kettlewell.

‘I stupidly forgot both the other evening and yesterday morning to send the Italian novels you or Miss Wedgwood wanted. The 3 I now send are all I can find. I hope Mr. Kettlewell’s gut was not made worse by the mutton broth: if so, we will try another sort of soup later on.’

Partially toned, 1 page of a bifolium, 16mo.

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Edward Lear, A Street Scene in Vevey, Switzerland.
Watercolour, inscribed and dated 1837, 28cm x 18cm, within a stained wood frame.

Provenance
Christie’s 8th July 1997, lot no.76.

Edward Lear, A view of Villa Barberini, Albano, near Rome.
Signed and dated ‘Edward Lear. del. 1846.’ (lower centre) and inscribed ‘Villa Barberini. / Albano.’ (lower left). pen and brown ink, brown wash on buff paper. 5 7⁄8 x 18 ¼ in. (15 x 46.5 cm.)

Provenance
with Agnew’s, London (105th Annual Exhibition of Watercolours and Drawings, January-February 1978, no. 205).

Christie’s.

Edward Lear, A view of Eremo di Camaldoli, Frascati, near Rome.
Signed and dated ‘Edward Lear del. 1846.’ (lower right) and inscribed ‘Camaldoli. / Frascati.’ (lower left). Pen and brown ink, brown wash, heightened with touches of white on buff paper. 6 ¼ x 17 ¾ in. (16 x 45 cm.)

Provenance
With Agnew’s, London (105th Annual Exhibition of Waterclours and Drawings, January-February 1978, no. 213).

Lear first travelled to Italy in 1837, and enjoyed regular and prolonged visits across the country over the following decade, culminating in his 1846 publication ‘Illustrated excursions in Italy’. For another Italian view by Lear, see lot 269.

Christie’s.

Edward Lear, Philae.
monogrammed lower right. oil on paper laid on canvas. 34cm x 54cm.

Provenance
With Agnew’s, London, no. 32992;
The Collection of Sir Thomas William Evans, Bt., of Allestree Hall, Derbyshire, and Dartmouth House, Queen Anne’s Gate, London;
Miss S. Sorley; Sotheby’s, London, 19 November 1969, lot 167;
Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London, 10 July 1991, lot 88;
Victorian, Pre-Raphaelite & British Impressionist Art, Christie’s, London, 17 June 2014, lot 73;
Private collection, Sussex

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Previously.

Edward Lear, A view of the Temple of Karnak at sunset, Thebes, Egypt.
Signed with monogram (lower right) and inscribed ‘Karnak. Thebes. Egypt’ (verso). Pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour, heightened with white on paper. 4 ¼ x 8 1⁄8 in. (10.8 x 20.6 cm.)

Provenance
J. F. Tillotson.
Anonymous sale; Christie’s, London, 20 November 1984, lot 172.
Anonymous sale; Christie’s, London, 12 April 1994, lot 174.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby’s, London, 4 July 2018, lot 222.

Lear first visited Egypt in January 1849, when he saw only Cairo and the Pyramids. The artist returned to Egypt at the end of 1853, arriving in Cairo that December. Immediately after Christmas, he received an invitation to journey up the Nile and embarked on a trip that took him as far south as Philae before he began his return journey on 8 February. A week later the boat arrived at Luxor, where Lear spent ten days exploring Karnak and the ruined temples at Thebes.

Christie’s.

Edward Lear, Kom Ombos, Egypt.
Signed with monogram (lower right) and indistinctly inscribed and dated ‘Ombos 1856’ (lower left). Oil on canvas laid down on board. 10 x 15 ½ in. (25.4 x 39.3 cm.)

See watercolour.

Provenance
Thomas Baring, 1st Earl of Northbrook (1826-1904), Stratton Park.
The Estate of Ray Livingston Murphy (1923-1953); Christie’s, London, 22 November 1985, lot 76.
with Agnew’s, London.
The Nicolette Wernick Collection; Christie’s, London, 16 June 2010, lot 84, where purchased by the present owner.

Exhibited
London, Walker’s Galleries, Edward Lear 1812-1888: An Exhibition of some Paintings and Drawings, 1 – 21 June 1950, no.1, as ‘Nile – Kom Ombos’.
Springfield, Massachusetts, George and Walter Vincent Smith Art Museum, 19th Century English Art from the Collection of Harold and Nicolette Wernick, 1988, no. 63.

Lear had settled back in London during the 1850s and became friends with the Pre-Raphaelites, especially Holman Hunt. He and Hunt decided to make a trip together to the Middle East, and on 6 December 1853, Lear set out on his own, with Hunt due to follow later. Lear returned to London the following year with a collection of drawings made on the trip. A watercolour of exactly the same view of the Kom Ombos Temple dated February 1854 exists, so the present oil must have been painted after his return to London and based on the watercolour. In 1848 Lear met Thomas Baring, later Earl of Northbrook, in Rome, and he became one of Lear’s closest friends for the rest of his life.

Christie’s.

Edward Lear, Samos, 6pm, 2 May 1863.
Inscribed lower right. Pen, ink and watercolour. 31 x 52cm.

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