A felucca on the Nile, near Girgeh, Egypt

After a gap of thirteen years Lear set off on his final trip to Egypt in December 1866 writing ‘It seems a dream that I am about to see the blinding brightness of the south once more’. (V. Noakes, Edward Lear, The Life of a Wanderer, London, 1979, p. 174). Girgeh is situated south of Cairo along the west bank of the Nile. Lear then travelled further south downriver to the Nubian desert before returning homewards in March 1867. The dates of ‘1867’ and ‘1884’ in the present view are an example of Lear’s practice of executing ‘on the spot’ sketches to capture the colour and spirit of the place before returning years later to complete a more finished watercolour.