Lot Essay
This is the finished drawing used for the wood engraving in Lear's Journal of a Landscape Painter in Corsica, published in 1870. He visited Corsica April-June 1868 and arrived at the Pass of Monte d'Oro (or Vizzavona) in the centre of the island on the way from Bocognano to Vivario on 19 May. 'The scenery of this wild pass is of a vast impressive character, but not very drawable...; on the left, the heights of Monte d'Oro are black and large; on the right through a lateral gorge are seen grand glimpses of the snowy Remosa... And now, at 9a.m., great beech-woods are reached - green, shady, delightful, silver-stemmed, their feathering foliage contrasting beautifully with the pearly hills of Ajaccio' (Lear, op.cit., pp.161-2). Lear reached the top of the pass at 9.15am.