Lot Essay
Lear visited the Holy Land including the Lebanon from March to June 1858; a view of Baalbek dated 23 May 1858 is at Harvard University (repr. P. Hofer, Edward Lear as a Landscape Draughtsman, 1967, pl. 60), and another of the same date was sold in these Rooms on 12 April 1994, lot 163, repr. in colour. This undated example, signed with Lear's monogram, is typical of the more finished watercolours he completed after his return home