Edward Lear, An Arab Encampment in the Sinai, near Gebal Serbal, Egypt.
Signed with monogram (lower right). Pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour with gum arabic heightened with touches of bodycolour, on paper. 4 5/8 x 7¼ in. (11.7 x 18.1 cm.).

Lear reached Sinai in January 1849 remarking in a letter to his sister Ann that ‘the excessive & wonderful grandeur of the spot is not to be described, though I hope to shew you drawings of it – : the adaptation of the whole scene to that recorded in Scripture is equally astonishing’ (Letter to his sister Ann, 16 January 1849, in V. Noakes, Edward Lear 1812-1888, London, 1985, p. 148).

According to an old catalogue note, the back of the original frame bore an inscription in the artist’s hand which read; ‘Gertrude Lushington from her affectionate godfather Edward Lear, August 9th, 1879′.

Humphrey Jennings (1907-1950), Sketch for Portrait of Edward Lear.

Signed with initials, inscribed and dated ‘H.J. 1948 Sketch for portrait of/Edward Lear’ (on the canvas overlap) and with studio stamp (on the canvas overlap).
Oil on canvas 14 x 12 in. (35.5 x 30.5 cm.).

Christie’s.

Edward Lear, The Pass of Tyrana, Albania

Signed and dated ‘Edward Lear del. 1851 (?)’ (lower right) and inscribed ‘Pass of Tyrana/Albania’ (lower left).
Pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour heightened with touches of bodycolour on paper, 10¾ x 15 5/8 in. (27.3 x 39.7 cm.).

Christie’s.

This enigmatic drawing by Edward Lear is from a set sold at Christie’s on 3 June 2003:

LEAR, Edward (1812-1888). An album containing 9 comic and other sketches in pen and ink (one in pencil), together with photographs of Lear’s villa in San Remo, and of other subjects: the drawings depicting parrots (three). a self-caricature with Foss (fragment of a letter), an owl smoking a pipe with a mouse in its claws, two small landscapes signed, ‘sunset and periwinkles’, and ‘ye hippopothamouse [&] ye crorkodile’, various sizes, 72 x 55 – 110 x 182mm; 11 photographs showing Lear’s villa and gardens at San Remo, others showing the graves of Lear and his servant, Giorgio Cocali, ‘Yews at Chichester given to me by Mr Lear at San Remo 1885′, and his drawing of temples on the Nile, 1895, and a small portrait photograph of his sister, Anne, ’30 March 1885′, various sizes, 120 x 115mm – 270 x 205mm, laid down in an album; together with approximately 98 photographs, circa 1885-1891, mostly of stately homes, interiors, street scenes, public buildings, places of natural beauty, and works of art in England, Ireland, France and Italy, various sizes; and a few other items, blank leaves (approximately 11 photographs damaged from pages being stuck together), in a late 19th-century album. Provenance. Mrs George Clive and by descent.

The Clives were longstanding friends and patrons of Lear: Ann Sybella Clive was one of the sponsors of Lear’s Indian expedition and visited him at San Remo. He corresponded with her, sending limericks and caricatures for her family. Her husband, George Clive, was a barrister and politician, and Under-Secretary of State for the Home Department from 1859-62.

From a letter to Mrs. G. Clive of 25 March 1875 after coming back from the Indian tour.

The letter complains of the changes in San Remo since the Franco-Prussian War (‘You may suppose how many Germen & Gerwomen there are, when I tell you that 37 have died here this winter alone!’), mentioning his falling income from the sale of his pictures, referring to his Indian tour (the country has ‘so fascinated me that I hardly fancy I can make any other views for the rest of my life’) and ‘Lord Northbrook’s great picture of Kinchinjunga’, and concluding with mournful description of his ‘semi-demoralized’ condition: ‘I am become like a periwinkle in the wilderness, with an owl for his dessert. It ain’t pleasant at 63 … I shall have recourse to the society of my Cat, & walk up & down the terrace.’

Christie’s, 6 June 2001.

E. Lear, Corfu - Viros, 1863

The Corfu Museum of Asian Art has officially announced the dates for the bicentenary exhibition, Edward Lear & the Ionian Islands, at the Palace of St. Michael and St. George, from 25 May to 31 August 2012.

The exhibition also has an informative official page.

Harvard University - Houghton Library MS Typ 55.23

As you know if you follow the list of Bicentenary Events, there will be an Edward Lear Bicententennial Conference at Jesus College, Oxford, on 21-22 September.

The page announcing it now lets you pre-register to be notified as soon as registration opens. Still here? What are you waiting for?

Cypress trees. Inscribed and dated ‘..vi 12 ^th May 1839.’ (lower left) and variously inscribed with colour notes. Pencil and watercolour. 5¾ x 3½ in. (14.7 x 8.9 cm.).

Christie’s.

Edward Lear, Katholikó Akrotiri, Crete (1864)

Edward Lear and His Cretan Drawings, a lecture by Stephen Duckworth. Modern Greek Seminars, King’s College, London. 5.30 pm.

If you are in Oxford:

Edward Lear’s Origins, a lecture by James Williams, of Brasenose and Jesus Colleges. Oxford Children’s Literature and Youth Culture Colloquium, Seminar Room A, English Faculty Building. 5.15 pm. Directions & map.

More details in the home page, or on Facebook.

Ithaca, Ionian Islands. Inscribed and dated l.l.: Ithaca/ 30. April. 9.30.A.M. 1863/ Valley of Elaupio/ OE…, numbered l.r.: 101, further inscribed with notes. Pen and brown ink and watercolour over pencil heightened with bodycolour.

In 1863, the date of the present work, Lear was 51 years old. Between 1862 and early 1864 he had largely divided his time between Corfu and England. However, from April to May he conducted a brief tour of the other Ionian islands. Ithaca lies to the north-east of Kefalonia and Lear described it as ‘Ulysses’ Kingdom’. He was clearly inspired by the island for in letter to Ann, his wife, he wrote: ‘[Ithaca] is a little island and charmingly quiet. I delight in it,’ (see Angus Davidson, Edward Lear, 1968, p.50).