Edward Lear (1812-1888)

Lear had a lifelong admiration for Alfred Tennyson, and in the year Tennyson became Poet Laureate, 1850, the two met. Whilst never close friends, they were acquaintances and from time to time Lear would stay at the Tennysons' home, Farringford, on the Isle of Wight. Tennyson never took much interest in Lear's paintings, but in 1852 Lear wrote to Tennyson's wife, Emily, asking if she liked the idea of landscape illustrations inspired by Tennyson's poetry. The suggestion was met with favour, and Lear began a project that would take him through until the end of his life.

The present drawing was executed as an illustration to Tennyson's poem 'To E.L. on his travels in Greece'. Amongst all his illustrations exploring his concept of poetical topography, this poem was the only example known where Lear seems to have inspired Tennyson in return.

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Provenance

With Agnew's, London.
With The Fine Art Society, London, October 1993.

Literature

R. Pitman, Edward Lear's Tennyson, Carcanet, 1988, p. 205.