Lot Essay
The Citadel of Calvi is seen on its promontory with the church of St. John the Baptist in the centre. Lear was in Corsica from April to June 1868, and an engraving after this view, trimmed top and bottom, was reproduced in his Journal of a Landscape Painter in Corsica, 1870, p.224. Lear was in Calvi on 29 May and, after it had rained 'pretty heavily' from noon 'until between 3 and 4... I was able to make drawings of the grand and picturesque fortress town from the rocks above it... all the scene is characterised by a wild and lonely splendour that is extremely impressive' (loc.cit.). He also reproduced a closer view of the Citadel from the other side as the full-page plate XXXVI.