To judge by Lear's account in his journal for 23 March 1849 the view is from the Theatre in Sparta, looking across the flat valley of the Eurotas towards the Tygetus range striding south towards the deep Mani: 'We enjoyed Sparta most thoroughly. The Theatre overlooks all the plain, and the vast Tygetus range is fully before it. The purple tone of the lower part of the range is extraordinary - contrasted with the brilliant shivery-sparkly silver of the white snow [cf. the "glasslike snow" of Lear's inscription] above'. On 24 March Lear went on to Kastro, the Byzantine town of Mistra, which nestles in the foothills of the mountain range to the West.

There is another version of this watercolour, with practically identical inscriptions but varied colouring, in the Gennadius Library, Athens