View of the Citadel, Corfu

Details

Edward Lear (1812-1888)
View of the Citadel, Corfu
signed with monogram (lower right) and inscribed 'Corfu' (lower left) and further inscribed 'Not to be autotype' (lower left), and numbered and inscribed '142/Not/to be/auto=/type' (on the backing, lower left) and further inscribed 'all things fair/(To E.L on his travels in Greece.)' (on the backing, lower left) and 'Corfu./Greece' (on the backing, lower right)
pencil and grey wash
4 x 5 7/8 in. (10.2 x 15 cm.)

Provenance

With Agnew's, London.
With The Fine Art Society, London, October 1993.

Literature

R. Pitman, Edward Lear's Tennyson, Carcanet, 1988, p. 205.

Special notice

This lot is offered without reserve. No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

Lear had a lifelong admiration for Alfred Tennyson, and in the year Tennyson became Poet Laureate, 1850, the two met. Whilst never close friends, they were acquaintances and from time to time Lear would stay at the Tennysons' home, Farringford, on the Isle of Wight. Tennyson never took much interest in Lear's paintings, but in 1852 Lear wrote to Tennyson's wife, Emily, asking if she liked the idea of landscape illustrations inspired by Tennyson's poetry. The suggestion was met with favour, and Lear began a project that would take him through until the end of his life.

The present drawing was executed as an illustration to Tennyson's poem 'To E.L. on his travels in Greece'. Amongst all his illustrations exploring his concept of poetical topography, this poem was the only example known where Lear seems to have inspired Tennyson in return.

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