Lot Essay
Lear's journey to India and Ceylon was the last and the longest trip of his life.
Lear went to India at the invitation of his friend, Thomas George Baring (1876-1904), later first Earl of Northbrook, who was then Viceroy of India (1872-1876). He spent the summer of 1872 in England and received so many commissions for his Indian trip that he knew it would be churlish not to go. After a false start in the autumn of 1872 he set out a second time the following year and reached Bombay on 22 November 1873. His first response to India was one of 'Violent and amazing delight at the wonderful variety of life and dress'. He felt 'nearly mad from sheer beauty and wonder of foliage! O new palms!!! O flowers!! O creatures!! O beasts!! - anything more overpoweringly amazing cannot be conceived!! Colours, and costumes, and myriadism of impossible picturesqueness!!!'. Lear travelled to Lucknow, Benares, Agra, Gwalior, Delhi, the Himalayas, Simla, Poona and Hyderabad. It was a demanding trip for someone of his age, he spent days in trains and gharries in opressive, overwhelming tropical heat and freezing Himalayan winds. By November of 1874 when he arrived in Ceylon, he was absolutely exhausted but he still marvelled at the luscious foliage that had so struck him when he had first arrived in India. His trip had taken fifteen months in all.
Lear went to India at the invitation of his friend, Thomas George Baring (1876-1904), later first Earl of Northbrook, who was then Viceroy of India (1872-1876). He spent the summer of 1872 in England and received so many commissions for his Indian trip that he knew it would be churlish not to go. After a false start in the autumn of 1872 he set out a second time the following year and reached Bombay on 22 November 1873. His first response to India was one of 'Violent and amazing delight at the wonderful variety of life and dress'. He felt 'nearly mad from sheer beauty and wonder of foliage! O new palms!!! O flowers!! O creatures!! O beasts!! - anything more overpoweringly amazing cannot be conceived!! Colours, and costumes, and myriadism of impossible picturesqueness!!!'. Lear travelled to Lucknow, Benares, Agra, Gwalior, Delhi, the Himalayas, Simla, Poona and Hyderabad. It was a demanding trip for someone of his age, he spent days in trains and gharries in opressive, overwhelming tropical heat and freezing Himalayan winds. By November of 1874 when he arrived in Ceylon, he was absolutely exhausted but he still marvelled at the luscious foliage that had so struck him when he had first arrived in India. His trip had taken fifteen months in all.