Lot Essay
Lear visited Crete in the spring and early summer of 1864; he left Corfu on 4 April and, after a stop over in Athens from 6-9 August, landed at Khania on 11 April. He set out eastwards along the north coast and, on 5 May, set out at half past five in the morning from Exopolis for Lake Kourna, where he executed a drawing numbered '(77)', the next before the present drawing, at 9 o'clock (see R. Fowler, ed., Edward Lear, The Cretan Journal, Athens and Dedham 1984, pp.55-6, the drawing in the Gennadius Library, Athens, illustrated in colour, p.55). Lear arrived at Episkopi in the middle of the afternoon and found it to be 'half in ruins'. He noted in his diary: 'slept well; few fleas' (Fowler, op.cit., p.58).