View of Interlaken, Switzerland

Details

Edward Lear (1812-1888)
View of Interlaken, Switzerland
inscribed and numbered 'Interlaken/2.Sept.185' (lower left) and further inscribed 'How is the father of the [?] mother in the Faulhorn/ascending on the top?' (lower right) and further inscribed with colour notes
pencil, blue and brown ink and grey and blue wash
11 x 18¼ in. (28 x 46.5 cm.)

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 11 November 1982, lot 21.
with Spink, London, where purchased by the present owner.

Exhibited

London, Spink and Son, Annual Watercolour Exhibition, 1983, no. 91.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis

Lot Essay

Lear left London for a walking tour of Switzerland on August 1854. On 6 August he wrote to his sister Ann 'I had no idea really of the beauty of Switzerland - for I never was in the really fine parts, except in 1841 - when I came thro' by night ... The Lake of Thun is one of the most beautiful of all the Swiss Lakes; -such a wonderful pea-blue sea-green! ... I set out to walk to Interlacken[sic]... along the north side of the Lake which is like a garden or park till, towards the east end, when one walks through beautiful shady woods.'

Although he enjoyed his visit, Lear did not return to Switzerland until 1878, when to escape the summer heat of San Remo, he went to the mountains above Lake Como.

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