Artist, illustrator, poet, and inveterate traveller, Edward Lear’s boundless energy, mischievous humour and zest for life masked lifelong struggles with epilepsy and depression, only subtly alluded to in his diaries and correspondence. His wanderings in southern Europe and the Near East are recorded in innumerable colour-washed views which he dubbed his ‘Topographies’; his preference for landscapes marked by sweeping vistas and which emphasised atmosphere over precise detail was itself partly influenced by the deterioration of his close vision during his early career as an ornithological illustrator. This large view of Karyes, the largest settlement in the isolated Greek monastic community of Mount Athos, demonstrates his typical working method for his on-the-spot watercolour studies, most not intended for exhibition but rather as preparatory for paintings. Over a rapid pencil sketch, made on the spot and annotated with notes in his personal shorthand, he applied broad colour washes, reinforcing the pencil line with brown ink. The openness and spontaneity of Lear’s watercolour style was highly individual and forward-looking. This tranquil image, however, belies Lear’s dark mood during his stay on Mount Athos; letters to friends and family indicate that he was suffering one of his periodic bouts of depression.

given by the artist to Charles Marcus Church (1823-1915); by descent to Lady Paget; her sale, Sotheby's (London), 11 July 1990, lot 137; purchased there by Miss Dorothy Scharf, London (1942-2004) (£15,400); Scharf Bequest 2007

British Watercolours from the Scharf Bequest, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 15/10/2008-01/01/2009

Spring, Fine Art Society, London, 1991 (April)

Noakes, Vivian, The painter Edward Lear, Newton Abbot 1991
pp. 68-69
ill. on p. 69

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto (within the drawing), all pen and brown ink over graphite, all in artist’s hand: upper centre, in sky: “faint lilac”; upper right on mountain: “red earth + wood” and below that “[illegible] of wood.”; right centre edge: “fig”; right centre in trees: “walnut” and repeated again at centre on another tree and again to the left below that on another tree; centre, on wall of a house: “w”; on tower at left centre: “gray [illegible] / pale red / pale red / red [illegible]”; on roof of house to the left of the tower; “cadgy” [?]”; on tower at left centre edge: “[illegible] cut / gray / [illegible] / brown gray”; left centre edge: two large illegible words; right centre: two large illegible words; lower centre: “weeds / wall. / stream.”; lower centre next to figure, only graphite: “blue”; lower left among trees, only graphite and mostly illegible as obscured by wash: “[illegible] colour”; lower right corner, dated: “Kaeves. / 12. Septr. 1856”; lower right corner, graphite, faded and difficult to read: “*27 [?]”.

Collector's mark: none.