Lot Essay
In the Spring of 1863, anticipating the end of the British Protectorate over the Ionian Islands and planning to publish Views in the Seven Ionian Islands with twenty plates, Lear toured the islands in the order Paxos, Levkas, Ithaca, Cephalonia, Kythera and finally Zante. He was still in Cephalonia on May 8th, and had definitely reached Kythera by May 18th; this watercolour seems to depict the more mountainous Cephalonia. Lear experimented with photographic means to reproduce his drawings but eventually fell back on lithography; nevertheless the book was ready for publication on 1 December 1863.
A different view, made later the same morning and similarly inscribed 'Black Mountain./15.May. 11.30 AM. 1863 (167)', was sold in these rooms on 14 November 1989, lot 165, repr. For another drawing made earlier on the same tour of the Ionian Islands see lot 120. This is Argostoli, on Cephalonia, date 4th May 1863; Lear dated drawings on Cephalonia between 2nd and 8th May
A different view, made later the same morning and similarly inscribed 'Black Mountain./15.May. 11.30 AM. 1863 (167)', was sold in these rooms on 14 November 1989, lot 165, repr. For another drawing made earlier on the same tour of the Ionian Islands see lot 120. This is Argostoli, on Cephalonia, date 4th May 1863; Lear dated drawings on Cephalonia between 2nd and 8th May