Edward Lear
Autograph Letter Signed, to the wife of painter William Holman Hunt, explaining that the delayed reply to “Daddy’s” letter [Lear’s nickname for Mr. Hunt] was due to illness, expressing sympathy for the troubles of John Everett Millais and [Edward] Burne-Jones, hoping to forget his recent miseries, mentioning his Tennyson landscape works and discussing a new 15-foot work depicting “Enoch Arden’s Island.” 4 pages, 8vo, written on a folded sheet; marginal markings spanning third and latter portion of fourth paragraphs likely in Mrs. Hunt’s hand, minor soiling along folds, faint scattered foxing.

Mendrisio, 28 August 1881.
“. . . Please thank Daddy for his letter. By yours . . . I find he has still to work very hard, & I fear by your having taken a house at Fulham [London] that you see as yet no near prospect of rest–or have you finally given up all thoughts of returning to Jerusalem?
“. . . My trouble & illness had to do with leaving the old house, & suffering from the glare of the immense white building opposite . . . . But I hope when I return to be able to forget the misery of the past 2 years, & to think as little as possible of the nasty people who caused it.
“Besides the Tennyson Landscapes, I am going to try to paint one subject more, 15 feet long!! Do not laugh. It is a principle with me, that though a man be never so old, he ought not to fold his arms & give up all energy & adopt moulderings; but on the contrary keep himself, if possible, alive for a little extra time, by making new interest & working harder.
“. . . [I]n this new subject, (which is already much backed up by immeasurable studies,) I introduce every kind of flower & tree I saw in India & Ceylon &c &c. And if any Cricket chirping says, ‘it is impossible that all those should grow in one place!’ I shall say, ‘Yes, they do.’ ‘Where?’ ‘In Enoch Arden’s Island!’ ‘And where is that?’ ‘215 miles from the port Enoch’s ship was going to.’ ‘And where then was that port?’ ‘Just 215 miles from Enoch Arden’s island!’ And that is all I shall say. . . .”

“Enoch Arden’s Island,” inspired by Alfred Tennyson’s poem, Enoch Arden, was a large work on canvas begun by Lear in 1876–but never completed–and worked on intermittently until his death in 1888. Although the work was lost, small pencil sketches and watercolor studies exist, showing dense foliage in the foreground extending to a vast and misty expanse of trees in the background.

Invaluable.

Edward Lear, Certosa del Pesio (San Bartolomeo).
Pencil, pen and brown ink, inscribed with title and dated August 1870 lower right, 31 x 48.5cm.

The Saleroom.

Edward Lear, Bordighera.
Signed and inscribed Bordighiera [sic] Edw Lear del (in ink, lower left). Watercolour and bodycolour, with pen and sepia ink. 14.5 x 22.5cm; 5¾ x 8¾in

In December 1864, Lear would have arrived in Bordighera, on the French-Italian border, returning from his walking tour along the Riviera to Genoa. Shelley, a poet whom Lear much admired, had been enraptured by the place. In correspondence, Lear praised the creature comforts and admired the cleanliness, the sanitation and the cuisine. From a light four-wheeled carriage called a vettura, Lear enjoyed the “poke up queer lanes & into olive woods & palm gardens to find a `view`. Very beautiful semi oriental places, & Corfu-like groves of olives..”. This Italian sojourn left a strong impression: `Exit from Italy which I am vexed at.’

The Saleroom.

Edward Lear, Monaco.
Signed and inscribed Monaco Edw Lear del (in ink, lower right). Watercolour, with pen and sepia ink. 14.7 x 22.5cm; 5¾ x 8¾in

Lear wrote to his friend Chichester Fortescue in November 1864 that he ‘had no idea the Cornice was so magnificent in scenery; Eza [sic Eze] and Monaco are wondrously picturesque, and Mentone very pretty’

The Saleroom.

Edward Lear, Mentone.
Signed and inscribed Mentone/ Edw Lear del (in ink, lower right). Watercolour, with pen and sepia ink, heightened with scratching out. 14.3 x 22.3cm; 5½ x 8¾in

In correspondence to a friend in November 1864, Lear wrote that he was about to ‘flee away south to Mallorca, Marseilles, Monpelier, Mentone, Malta, Malaga, Madiera I don’t know which – or much care, provided the place begins with a Nem.’ During the winter of 1864-5, he made many detailed studies along much of the south coast of France.

The Saleroom.

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’.

The Saleroom.

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.

The Saleroom.

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.