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View of the coast at Mentone

Maker

(artist)
1812-1888

Title

Date of Production

7 December 1864

Medium

graphite, pen and brown ink, watercolour on wove paper, laid down

Dimensions

Height: 22.6 cm
Width: 35.2 cm

Accession Number

D.1952.RW.4112

Mode of Acquisition

Robert Clermont Witt, bequest, 1952

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

Lear drew this view on a walking tour from Nice to Genoa and back in 1864. Mentone had a substantial English community on which Lear comments disparagingly in his diary for 9th December: "Mentone is assuredly very beautiful, but intolerable and unwholesome from its overcrowded Anglicism". As was his practice, the scene is sketched in pencil on the spot and has subsequently been 'penned out', the lines being reinforced with ink and the colour washes added.

Provenance

Thomas Agnew & Sons (London); purchased there by Sir Robert Witt, London (1872-1952), L.2228b (verso, lower left), n.d. (£17.6); Witt Bequest 1952

Exhibition History

The Witt Collection - Four centuries of drawings, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 03/04/2004-20/06/2004

English Landscape Drawings from the Witt Collection, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 01/01/1965-01/05/1965

British Artists in Mediterranean Lands, Lake District Festival, Kendal, 07/07/1960-23/07/1960

Literature

English watercolours in the collection of C.F.J. Beausire, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 1970
p. 15, under no. 29

English Landscape Drawings from the Witt Collection, Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 1965
cat. no. 57

Blunt, Anthony, Hand-list of the drawings in the Witt Collection, London, 1956
p. 31

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto: colour notes by the artist: centre, graphite: "dove gray / gray", right of centre, brown ink over graphite: "gray rock", right centre, brown ink over graphite: "urbz + pines", lower left of centre, brown ink over graphite: "black / brown gray", lower right of centre, brown ink over graphite: "myrtle Lentisk", lower left, brown ink over graphite: "Gufe [or Cufe or Qufe?] / foar" [?]; lower left corner, graphite, hard to read: "N.A.M. / 1642; lower right, brown ink, located and dated: "Mentone / 10. A.M. / 7 Decembr. 1864. / (Corniche / 7).". Verso (backing sheet): centre, graphite: "10 / Upright / Lowest"; lower left edge, graphite, Witt number: "4112".

Collector's mark: Verso (backing sheet): lower left corner, stamped in black: Sir Robert Witt (L.2228b).

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