Edward Lear - The Falls of the Kalama, Albania

Price Realized
£10,625

signed with monogram (lower right) and with inscription 'Falls of the Kalama/Albania/By E. Lear' (on the reverse of the mount)
pencil and watercolour heightened with touches of bodycolour, on paper
6½ x 10¼ in. (16.5 x 26 cm.)

In the mid-19th century Albania was a relatively unexplored territory by Englishmen, and Lear found it provided an immense wealth of subject matter: 'You have that which is found neither in Greece nor in Italy, a profusion everywhere of the most magnificent foliage recalling the greenness of our own island...You have majestic cliff-girt shores; castle-crowned heights, and gloomy forests; palaces glittering with gilding and paint; mountain passes such as you encounter in the snowy regions in Switzerland...and with all this a crowded variety of costume and pictorial incident such as bewilders and delights an artist at each step he takes' (V. Noakes, The Painter Edward Lear, London, 1991, p. 52). A comparable watercolour of the waterfall was in the collection of Frances, Lady Waldegrave until 14 December 1972.

http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/edward-lear-the-falls-of-the-kalama/5396401/lot/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&pos=8&intObjectID=5396401&sid=e107da45-4c75-42f8-9c76-d62ad90fe2bd&page=5

Edward Lear - Beirut, Lebanon

Price Realized
£23,750

signed, inscribed and dated 'Edward Lear/1858/Beirut.' (lower left)
pen and ink and watercolour with gum arabic heightened with touches of white, on paper
6½ x 10¼ in. (16.5 x 26 cm.)
http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/edward-lear-beirut-lebanon/5396400/lot/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&pos=7&intObjectID=5396400&sid=e107da45-4c75-42f8-9c76-d62ad90fe2bd&page=5

Edward Lear - View of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, Israel

Price Realized
£37,250

signed with monogram and dated '1885' (lower right) and inscribed and dated 'Jerusalem. 1858' (lower left)
pencil and watercolour heightened with white, on paper
6¾ x 14½ in. (17.2 x 36.8 cm.)

In 1858 Lear was commissioned to paint a view of Jerusalem at sunset by Lady Waldegrave for whom he also executed a large scale oil painting of Venice. In preparation for this painting Lear explored the surrounding landscape to find the most suitable location from which to base his viewpoint of the great city, climbing 'to the spot Christ must have been on when he "saw the city" - on coming from Bethany' (Letter to his sister Ann, 29 March 1858, in V. Noakes, Edward Lear: The Life of a Wanderer, London, 2004, p. 133) on the Mount of Olives from which could be seen 'the site of the temple & the 2 domes, - and it shews the ravine of the valley of Jehosaphat, over which the city looks...And besides this the sun, at sunset, catches the sides of the larger Eastern buildings, while all the upper part of the city is in shadow; - added to all which there is an unlimited foreground of figs, olives, & pomengranates, not to speak of goats, sheep, & huming beings [sic]' (Letter to Lady Waldegrave, 27.V.58, in V. Noakes, Edward Lear 1812-1888, London, 1985, p. 149).
http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/edward-lear-view-of-jerusalem-from-the/5396399/lot/lot_details.aspx?from=salesummary&pos=6&intObjectID=5396399&sid=e107da45-4c75-42f8-9c76-d62ad90fe2bd&page=5

Edward Lear - There was an Old Man on some rocks, who shut up his wife in a box

from 'A Book of Nonsense', published by Frederick Warne and Co., London, c.1875

Delightful Hidden Portrait of Family Pet in Edward Lear Nonsense Letter for Sale at Bonhams

LONDON.- A wonderfully inventive phonetic letter from Edward Lear to his close friend Mrs Digby Wyatt containing a delightful hidden portrait of the family dog is for sale as part of the Roy Davids Collection of Papers and Portraits at Bonhams in London on 29 March. It is estimated at between £2,000-3,000.

The dog appears disguised as an ink blot in Lear’s sign off to the letter. “My love to Digby” he writes, “and respects to” followed by a blob. It was Roy Davids himself who discovered that the ‘blob’ is actually a delicately constructed miniature portrait of a dog.

Lear only wrote nonsense letters to trusted friends and in this 1866 letter – dated ‘22toothoktobr’ - to Constance Digby he gives free rein to his imagination. He explains an abortive visit the previous day - 'to try if Yewanddigby were aTome', so he is now writing to see if they will be 'shayvoo' next Sunday ('...andifso I will charter the Hanson of rapidity, and be driven to the haunts of hospitality in the verdant recesses of the deer frequented groves of Tavistock Park on that day...').

From childhood onwards, Lear suffered from epilepsy and asthma and had periodic bouts of depression throughout this life and the letter also shows this more melancholic side of his nature. He writes, “...I have been having no end of despair at the darkness of late - & thort I shudavadda Phittavasmer (i.e.fit of Asthma) again today as I have frequently had of late.”

In a p.s. (P.eth in ‘Learspeak’) he makes light of an accident with his teeth, “ 'thaddakthident, & have broken off my front teeth, so that I thall never thpeak plain again' ('Thith Cometh of biting crutht)'.

http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=45558