Philae on the Nile

On reaching Philae towards the end of 1853 Lear was enamoured by what he found, writing home to his sister Ann that 'It is impossible to describe the place to you, any further than saying it is more like a real fairy island than anything else I can compare it to...The Temple of Isis, on the terrace of which I now am writing, is so extremely wonderful that no words can give the least idea of it...At morning & evening the scene is lovely beyond imagination'. Bewitched by the landscape around him, Lear was frustrated by his inability to capture the clarity of light and brilliance of colour of Egypt in his work, particularly as oil dried so quickly in the local atmosphere that he was limited to watercolour sketches to be worked up into finished paintings on return to his studio. Inspired by the poetry of Tennyson, Lear often entitled his views of Philae with a quote from You ask me, why, tho' ill at ease (1842); "I will see before I die/The Palms & Temples of the South".