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Villefranche-sur-Mer

Maker

(artist)
1812-1888

Title

Villefranche-sur-Mer

Date of Production

(circa) 1865

Medium

graphite, pen and brown ink, brown wash, watercolour and white bodycolour on wove paper, inlaid into a wash border mount

Dimensions

Height: 15.7 cm
Width: 23.2 cm

Accession Number

D.2018.ST.10

Mode of Acquisition

The Spooner Charitable Trust, gift

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords




Related Works

Villefranche-sur-Mer

Label Text

The artist, illustrator and poet Edward Lear (1812-1888) began his artistic career as a teenager as an ornithological illustrator, but lifelong poor health and deteriorating eyesight forced him to abandon this field in favour of landscape. His oeuvre consists primarily of watercolours, prints and oils inspired by his travels around the Mediterranean, usually worked up in the studio from wash drawings made on the spot.

The present watercolour is a studio work dating from Lear’s 1864-65 sojourn in Nice. It depicts the view from the west of the harbour and fortified old town of Villefranche-sur-Mer, three miles east of Nice, and appears to be based on a plein-air sketch dated ‘15 January 1865, 8 to 9.30 am’ and extensively annotated with colour notes, which entered The Courtauld’s collection as part of the Dorothy Scharf bequest in 2007 (D.2007.DS.26). It exhibits the intense colour contrasts typical of his Mediterranean landscapes as well as the juxtaposition of meticulous detail with more freely-handled passages characteristic of his approach.

Provenance

Spink & Son (London); purchased there by The Spooner Charitable Trust as a gift to the Samuel Courtauld Trust, October 2018

Inscriptions

Watermark: Watermark: none.

Inscription: Recto: lower left corner, brown ink, signed: “Villefranche. Edwd Lear. del.”. Backboard (removed but visible in photo in acquisition report): graphite, partially covered by a label: “[…]76/2”.

Collector's mark: none.

Label: On backboard (removed but visible in photo in acquisition report): label printed in black from Spink (London) with the typewritten number filled in: “No. K3 10494” and on a separate typewritten label below: “LEAE [sic] K310494 / EDWARD LEAR / 1812-1888 / Villefranche, France / Pen and brown ink and watercolour heightened with touches of white / 6 x 9 inches / Signed and inscribed ‘Villefranche’ / Villefranche is on the coast of / France near Nice where Lear stayed / for the winter of 1864-5. He painted a / larger version of the same view, dated / 15th January, 1865, 8-9:30 a m. (see Spink / ‘Annual Watercolour Exhibition’, 1992, no. 37).”.

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