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Quarries of Syracuse

Maker

(artist)
1812-1888

Title

Date of Production

(11 June) 1847

Medium

graphite, pen and brown ink, watercolour and bodycolour on buff (now brown) wove paper

Dimensions

Height: 34.4 cm
Width: 50 cm

Accession Number

D.1967.WS.60

Mode of Acquisition

William Wycliffe Spooner, bequest, 1967

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords

Label Text

Apart from intervals in England, Lear lived principally abroad, travelling extensively on the Continent and further afield. He made thousands of rapid sketches, annotating them to provide information for finished works. Produced on his second trip to Sicily, this watercolour is the final study for a large oil painting (Private collection). Persuaded by William Holman Hunt to follow the Pre-Raphaelite practice of painting from nature, Lear worked alongside the artist at the Fairlight cliffs near Hastings, using this sketch for guidance.

Notes

This was used as a study for an oil painting, begun in 1852 and exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1853: 'The City of Syracuse from the Ancient Quarries where the Athenians were Imprisoned BC 413' (private collection). Other watercolour studies of the same scene are in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool and Hunterian, Glasgow.

Provenance

Mr and Mrs William Wycliffe Spooner, Ilkley (1882-1967); Spooner Bequest 1967

Exhibition History

Life, Legend, Landscape - Victorian Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 17/02/2011-15/05/2011

British Watercolours from the Spooner Collection, Huntington Museum and Art Gallery, Los Angeles, 12/02/2005-15/05/2005

British Watercolours from the Spooner Collection, Huntington Museum of Art, Los Angeles, 12/02/2005-15/05/2005; Wordsworth Trust, Grasmere, 18/07/2005-23/10/2005; Hermitage Rooms, Somerset House, London, 16/11/2005-12/02/2006 ...More

English Landscape Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 01/06/1979-01/09/1979

English Watercolours: The Spooner Collection and Bequest, City Art Gallery, Bristol, 11/05/1973-02/06/1973

Masters of the Watercolour - Watercolours from the Spooner
Collection, Holburne Museum of Art, Bath, 1969 ...Less

Literature

Life, Legend, Landscape - Victorian Drawings and Watercolours, The Courtauld Gallery, 2011
cat. no. 22
ill. on p. 97

The Spooner Collection of British Watercolours, Courtauld Institute Galleries; Huntington Library; Wordsworth Trust, 2005-06
cat. no. 81
ill. on p. 235

Treuherz, Julian, 'Edward Lear in Syracuse' in 'Burlington Magazine', September 2002 - pp. 532-38; CXLIV, 1194
pp. 533-34
fig. 4 on p. 536 ...More

English Landscape Drawings and Watercolours, Courtauld Gallery, London, 1979
cat. no. 63

English Watercolours: The Spooner Collection and Bequest, City Art Gallery, Bristol, 1973
cat. no. 35

Masters of the Watercolour - Watercolours from the Spooner Collection, Holburne Museum of Art, Bath, 1969
cat. no. 45 ...Less

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto (all in artist's hand): within the drawing, upper right, graphite: "spinach / field"; lower right, graphite: "high wind"; lower right, pen and yellow-brown ink: "Siracusa. / 11. June. 1847."; lower left corner, graphite: "120". Mount (removed, cut down and now in file): all in graphite and encircled together: “E Lear Siracuse”; “6185”; “@ il/-/- / Sells / TF/TF/-“.

Collector's mark: none.

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