Lear was a prolific draughtsman who travelled extensively; this drawing is numbered at lower right as his thirty-fourth sketch of Villefranche. He recorded the date and time at lower left, first in pencil on the spot, and again in pen later in his studio - a process repeated throughout the drawing. While sketching outdoors, he would scribble phonetic notes to remind himself of the colours and features of the landscape, such as ‘grey rox + urbz’ and ‘olives’ here. Back in his studio, he would add watercolour based on these annotations.

Sir John Witt, London (1907-1982), L.646a; anonymous sale, Sotheby's (London), 11 April 1991, lot 85 (sold for £11,770); Spink & Son (London), by May 1992; Miss Dorothy Scharf, London (1942-2004); Scharf Bequest 2007

Drawings Gallery Display - Reading Drawings, The Courtauld Gallery, London, 21/01/2017-04/06/2017

The Courtauld Collects - 20 Years of Acquisitions, Somerset House & London & England, 17/06/2010-19/09/2010

English watercolour drawings: annual exhibition, Spink & Son, London, 06/05/1992-29/05/1992 ...More

One Hundred Drawings and Watercolours dating from the 16th Century to the 21st Century, Guy Peppiatt Fine Art and Stephen Ongpin Fine Art, London, 2017-2018
p. 82 under no. 73

Guy Peppiatt Fine Art, British drawings and watercolours, London 2014
p. 63 under no. 57

Christie's, London, British art on paper, including 'The Blue Rigi' by J.M.W. Turner, R.A., 5 June 2006
p. 87 under lot 63 ...More

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto, all written first in graphite and rewritten in brown ink, artist’s hand: starting at upper left on the mountains and continuing across the range: “green pines”, “shortcut”, “pines”, “bare gray”, “olive”, “gray”, “red”, “dove”, “bark pines”, “gray”, “rox”, “red”, “red”, “bare russet”, “road”, “bare”, “gray”, “olives”, “gry”, “russet”, “bare”, “gray pines”, “olives all”, “flat”, “red”, “w”, “gy”, “too high”, “right height”, “dull gray”, “gray”, “dark gy rox”, “rox”, “pale / salmon”, “salmon”, “gray”; throughout the walled town: “w” written five times, also “gy” and “bly[?]”; next to the town and working along the shoreline: “Terraces”, “rox”, “rox”, “w”, “rox”, w, “thick old in shade”, “olives”, “rox”, “rox”; in the water by the shore: “w”, “w” and “dark gray”; in the bushes on the foreground shoreline: “olives”, “olives”, “pale” and “gray / rox”; on lower left corner foreground: “path”, “gray rox & urbz”, “Villefranche / 8-9:30. AM. / Jany. 15. 1865. / Town white – wall gray / whole town very light ff[?].”; lower right corner: “(34)”. Verso: centre, brown ink: “140”; lower right, graphite: “1/4 ÷ 21 5/8 53”; lower left corner, graphite: “169 large"; lower right corner, graphite, erased: “6/-/-“ [?].

Collector's mark: Verso: lower left corner, only a faint impression as though transferred from a former backing sheet or mount, or erased: Sir John Witt (L.646a).