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Lear’s Pictures

Lear is remembered as humorist, zoological draughtsman, poet and musician, but perhaps his greatest works are his beautifully-observed landscape drawings and watercolours. He began his career at the age of sixteen, drawing animals and birds in the London Zoo. After 1837 he made his living as a landscape painter, travelling throughout Europe and as far afield as India in search of new places to draw.

The Landscape Artist in Greece

Lear’s journey with Charles Church in 1848 was his first visit to Greece; he later settled in Corfu and travelled widely in what is now Greece: his “polygraphic Hellenic proclivities” were to produce approximately 3,000 Greek drawings.

Lear’s Method

Lear sketched swiftly on the spot, scribbling notes on his preliminary drawings and numbering them; later, indoors, he would ‘pen out’, inking over his pencil outlines and adding colour wash. The sketches could then be worked up as finished “studio” watercolours or more ambitious oil paintings, for exhibition and sale.

Pictures from the 1848 Trip

Lear’s numbered series runs from 1 to 143A, with a few unnumbered figure and flower drawings. We know the present whereabouts of only 51 of the numbered series, though others are well documented from sale and exhibition catalogues. Throughout his life Lear continued to work from his original drawings; we have identified eleven studio watercolours and three oil paintings. Oil was used for the most “famous” scenes: Marathon and Thermopylae, of which there is an example below.

Edward Lear, Thermopylae, 1872
WA1997.14, Reproduced by kind permission of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

The Numbered Series

Below we have drawn together the pictures from Lear’s numbered series. They are displayed in the order given by Lear, according to his running numbers, displayed above each image.

Number 4 – Athens: Hephaisteion

Edward Lear, Athens: Hephaisteion, 5/6 June 1848
TypDr805.L513 48f, reproduced by kind permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University

Number 5 – Athens

Edward Lear, Athens, 5, 6 & 7 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 6 – Athens

Edward Lear, Athens, 5, 6 & 7 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 7 – Athens, the Acropolis

Edward Lear, Athens, the Acropolis, 5-6 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 8 – Athens

Edward Lear, Athens, 5,6 & 7 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 9 – Athens

Edward Lear, Athens, 5,6 & 9 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 10 – Athens, the Hephaistion from the Acropolis

Edward Lear, Athens: [Hephaisteion from the Acropolis]
TypDr 805.L513.48a, reproduced by kind permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University

Number 12 – Athens, Temple of Minerva

Edward Lear, Athens, Temple of Minerva, 5 & 8 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 13 – Athens, Temple of Nike Apteros

Edward Lear, Athens, Temple of Nike Apteros, 5, 6 & 12 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 18 – Athens

Edward Lear, Athens, 8 & 9 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 19 – Athens

Edward Lear, Athens, 8 June 1848
B1990.28.5, Yale Center for British Art, Gift of George E. Dix, B.A. 1934, M.A. 1942

Number 20 – Athens

Edward Lear, Athens, 8 June 1848
Courtesy of Dreweatts Auctioneers

Number 23 – Athens from Mount Lycabettus

Edward Lear, Athens from Mount Lycabettus, 12 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 26 – Athens

Edward Lear, Athens, 12 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 27 – Athens

Edward Lear, Athens, 12 June 1848
VIS4487, reproduced by kind permission of Museums Sheffield

Number 28 – Athens, Royal Palace

Edward Lear, Athens Royal Palace, 12 June 1848
VIS4486, reproduced by kind permission of Museums Sheffield

Number 32 – Marathon

Edward Lear, Marathon, 15 June 1848
VIS4489, reproduced by kind permission of Museums Sheffield

Number 36 – Marathon

Edward Lear, Marathon, 16 June 1848
VIS4489, reproduced by kind permission of Museums Sheffield

Number 43 – Vathy, near Chalcis

Edward Lear, Vathy near Chalkis, 17 June 1848
VIS4483, reproduced by kind permission of Museums Sheffield

Number 57 – Near Kymi

Edward Lear, Between Avlona and Kymi, A Plain and Mountain Gorge, 20 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 59 – Near Kymi

Edward Lear, Near Kymi, 21 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 61 – Vrisi on the island of Euboea

Edward Lear, Vrisi on the island of Euboea, 21 June 1848
VIS4491, reproduced by kind permission of Museums Sheffield

Number 62 – Mount Dirphys

Edward Lear, Mount Dirphys, 21 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 66 – Between Chalkis and Castella

Edward Lear, Between Khalkis and Castella, 22 June 1848
TypDr 805.L513.48g , reproduced by kind permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University

Number 67 – Castella

Edward Lear, Castella, 22 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 71 – Near Achmèt Agà

Edward Lear, Near Achmèt Agà, 23 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 72 – In the Pine Forests near Achmèt Agà

Edward Lear, In the Pine Forests near Achmèt Agà, 23 June 1848
Portland Museum of Art, Maine. Anonymous gift, 2010.16.4

Number 78 – Near Achmèt Agà

Edward Lear, Near Achmèt Agà, 24 June 1848
The Noel-Baker Family Papers, reproduced by kind permission of the Noel-Baker Family and the British School at Athens

Number 81 – Near Kokinamelia

Edward Lear, Near Kokinamelia, 24 June 1848
VIS4488, reproduced by kind permisssion of Museums Sheffield

Number 82 – Forest, Sea and Mountains, Kokinamelia

Edward Lear, Forest, Sea and Mountains, Kokinamelia 25 June 1848 Private Collection

Number 84 – Stylida

Edward Lear, Stylida, 26 June 1848
Copyright © Bonhams 1793 Ltd

Number 86B – Lamia

Edward Lear, Lamia, 28 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 92 – Lamia

Edward Lear, Lamia, 27 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 93 – Mountains of Katabothra

Edward Lear, Mountains of Katabothra near Lamia, 29 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 95 – Neopatra

Edward Lear, Neopatra (Patradgik), 29 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 96 – Patradgik, Mountain Village

Edward Lear, Patradgik, Mountain Village, 29 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 99 – Zeitum (Lamia)

Edward Lear, Zeitum (Lamia), 30 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 100 – Spercheius

Edward Lear, Spercheius, 29 June 1848
Photography by Erik Gould, courtesy of the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence.

Number 103 – Thermopylae Hot Springs

Edward Lear, Thermopylae Hot Springs under Mount Kallidromos, undated
Private Collection

Number 104 – Thermopylae

Edward Lear, Thermopylae, 30 June 1848
TypDr 805.L513.48e, by kind permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University

Number 105 – Near Vodonitza

Edward Lear, Near Vodonitza, 30 June 1848
Private Collection

Number 111 – Helicon and Lake Copais from the mountains above Kokhino on the way to Thebes

Edward Lear, Helicon and Lake Copais from the mountains above Kokhino on the way to Thebes, July 1848
Private Collection

Number 112 – From the mountain above Kokhino on the way to Thebes

Edward Lear, From the mountains above Kokhino on the way to Thebes, 3 July 1848
Courtesy of Shepherd Gallery, New York

Number 115 – Thebes and Cithaeron

Edward Lear, Thebes and Cithaeron, 3 July 1848 Private Collection

Number 116 – Near Thebes

Edward Lear, Near Thebes, July 1848
Private Collection

Number 117 – Thebes

Edward Lear, Thebes, 4 July 1848
Private Collection

Number 118 – Thebes, Thiva

Edward Lear, Thebes, Thiva, 4 July 1848 Private Collection

Number 121 – Thebes

Edward Lear, Thebes, 4 July 1848
Private Collection

Number 123 – Plataea

Edward Lear, Plataea, 5 July 1848 Private Collection

Number 124 – Plataea, Shepherds resting on ruins

Edward Lear, Plataea, Shepherds resting on ruins, 5 July 1848
Private Collection

Number 127 – Athens, road to Carra

Edward Lear, Athens, 23 July 1848
TypDr 805.L513.48z, reproduced by kind permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard

Number 131 – The Temple of Hephaestus

Edward Lear, The Temple of Hephaestus, 26 July 1848
Private Collection

Number 143A – Kara

Edward Lear, Kara, July 1848
MS Typ 55.26 (469), Reproduced by kind permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University
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Thursday 15 June

Rose before daylight, having packed bag and drawing materials for journey. Paid Janni. Breakfast. Settled all things. It was 6 a.m. before we started.

Edward Lear, Athens Royal Palace, 12 June 1848
VIS4486, reproduced by kind permission of Museums Sheffield

In the course of ten days at Athens, between 3 and 14 June, Lear had collected more than 20 sketches (numbered from 3 to 24)[18] of Athens and its neighbourhood, of striking effect. Many of these contain features which have since disappeared from building and landscape, of picturesque and historic interest: the tall, brown Venetian watch-tower, which then stood in striking contrast with the straight lines of walls and temples, the Turkish bastion and gateway, the battered walls, the threshing floors on the platform of the tall columns of the Olympeium, gaunt and lonely, the olive groves on the plain, in their solemn dignity and rich golden vesture, with much more extended area than in later years, the groups of peasants in their native dresses, under the pergola of straw shelter on the plain, or in picturesque attitudes on the ochre rocks {sketch 27}, the Parthenon standing amid its wilderness of white marble blocks and long grass; all these features belonging to Athens of 60 years ago were represented in the grave and solemn character of Lear’s sketches of 1848 — all have disappeared amidst the growth of modern civilisation.

Edward Lear, Athens, 12 June 1848
VIS4487, reproduced by kind permission of Museums Sheffield

It was 6 a.m. before we got under way, Church and I in saddle, also Janni in flare-up red Turkish dress, Cook and 3 baggage horses followed. Soon after we had left the city, perhaps an hour, we were galloping, when my horse came down like a shot. I fell over his head and was much hurt in the shoulder and side.[19] We pass behind Lycabettus and go straight towards Pentelicus leaving Hymettus right. Vast lines, wide plain; two little villages, Marousi, Kephissia. My arm getting worse, walked. Trees increasing and larger. 10.30 a.m. reached Stamata –very ill and in great pain. Church advised going back, but resolved to go on. Janni gave us an excellent dinner in the tent under almond trees. Went on 2 p.m., always walking. Pine scenery. Came in sight of Bay and Plain of Marathon, descent among fine pines. Drew twice {sketches 32, 33}, though in no condition for drawing. Cut across to Tumulus, desolate flat plain. Church gallopeth. Herds of goats and cattle. Sunset. Came by valley full of myriads of goats to Marathon. Vrana, Demarch’s [Mayor’s] House, good tea. Arm very bad, rubbed by Church. Mosquito.

Edward Lear, Marathon, 15 June 1848
VIS4489, reproduced by kind permission of Museums Sheffield

[18] The Athens sketches are numbered from 3 to 31.

[19] Lear often suffered mishaps with horses: see, for example, his sequence of humorous sketches made in Sicily the previous year (British Museum).

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Friday 16 June

Thank God, I slept a good deal, from having been so tired, but woke in great pain. Difficult task to wash and dress. No perceptible power as yet of moving my arm, though I suffer less pain. Good breakfast. Janni not ready till 5.30, when we left. Walked, for I could not mount my horse on account of my arm. Shady side of hill about Marathon. Edge of marsh where Persians was drownded. Fine black, but savage, dogs. Superb scattered trees. {sketch 36} Struck inland — a monotonous, hilly plain; oaks here and there. Sun hot; arm very bad; tired and ill.

Edward Lear, Marathon, 16 June 1848
VIS4489, reproduced by kind permission of Museums Sheffield

9 a.m. came in sight of Fort of Ramnus. Drew, while C. M. C. bathed. Tremendous heat. Then, at last, with great pain, mounted and rode up to the foundations of Temple. On by ravines, with wood and grey rocks. By 1 p.m. at Varnava, a pretty village, with noble views. Dinner in tent — excellent. Directly afterwards drew — great heat. Arm a thought better. At 3 p.m. start again. Beautiful ravines — climb hills — Oleanders, blooming Acanthus (narrow leaved). Turn towards Euboea — exquisite views!

Down, down, down to Kalamos. After a long, long road, arrived at the Scala di Oripò. Khan. Mice! fleas! Tea — eggs with a fish-like flavour. Much laughter and impromptu verses:

The Hens of Oripò

The aged hens of Oripò
They tempt the stormy sea;
Black, white and brown, they spread their wings,
And o’er the waters flee.
And when a little fish they clutch
Athwart the wave so blue,
They utter forth a joyful note —
“A cock a doodle doo!” (oo).
O! Oo! Oripò-oo!
The hens of Oripò!

The crafty hens of Oripò
They wander on the shore,
Where shrimps and winkles pick they up
And carry home a store.
For barley, oats and golden corn
To eat they never wish;
All vegetable food they scorn,
And only seek for fish.
O! Oo! Oripò-oo!
The hens of Oripò!

The wily hens of Oripò,
Black, white and brown and grey,
They don’t behave like other hens,
In any decent way.
They lay their eggs among the rocks,
Instead of in the straw.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

The nasty hens of Oripò,
With ill-conditioned zeal
All fish defunct they gobble up
At morn or evening meal,
Whereby their eggs, as now we find,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A fishlike, ancient smell and taste
Unpleasant doth pervade.
O! Oo! Oripò-oo!
The hens of Oripò!

16 June: Three chief sketches of this day’s work mark our route, and the points which caught his eye and made the chief impression on him.

(a) Rhamnus on the ascent of the ridge above Marathon, at the head of narrow gorge falling down to the seashore, and to ruins of the old fort there. In the foreground are the white blocks of marble of the Temple of Nemesis, among “cushions of green lentisk,” on each side of the gorge. The sea and shore and mountains of Euboea are opposite in the middle and furthest distance.

(b) Next, the view from Varnava, on the crest of the pine-clad ridge, looking over the upland of Attica on one side, where Parnes and Pentelicus join their roots on the site of Deceleia and the present gardens and woods of Tatoi,[20] and on the other hand fall down upon the woodland slope and plains of the Attic shore to the distances of Euboea, on the other side of the Euripus, Mt Dirphe, with its lofty, conical head, tipped with snow, always prominent in the landscapes from this shore.

(c) Thirdly, Kalamos, the third sketch today, lower down on the slope of this mountain ridge where the view towards Euboea is laid out more distinctly and with a wider range. This is one of Lear’s most topographical sketches at this time. It might almost have been drawn in accordance with Leake’s description,[21] commanding a good view of the surrounding parts of Attica and Boeotia and of the opposite coast of Euboea. Taken from the heights above the Channel in face of the deep gulf of Aliveri in Euboea, it ranges up the great middle plain of the island, across to Kumi on the Eastern shore of the island and again upwards on the Western coast as far as Eretria and the heights above Chalcis and beyond, to the cliffs under Kandile. This wonderful panorama comes out in Lear’s picture in the rich purple of a setting sun.

From Kalamos we came down to Oripò and the Scala of Oripò, Lear sketching, through a foreground of pine wood, the channel of Euboea, and Eretria, its hill fort, and the mountains opposite; and we put up for the night at the Khan at the Scala of Oripò. Here men were fishing off the shore.


[20] Ottoman name for ancient (and modern) Deceleia; Church is referring to the “gardens and woods” of the Greek royal family’s summer palace, built in the 1870s.

[21] William Martin Leake, Travels in Northern Greece, 4 vols (1835), 2, 438-9.

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Monday 19 June

CHALKIS

Rose at 3.30 a.m. and bathed with C.M.C. before sunrise, returning to breakfast. Wandered about alone from 6 to 11, drawing figures, etc. A fair, or bazaar, held just outside the walls of the fortified town — wondrous groups of people!! Short tunics, lined with wool, bordered with red or black, worked ditto on the women: families of blacks (or Negroes?);[27] altogether a scene of immense variety. Found a Greek friend of C. M. C. at the Inn, spoke only Greek. Their political bothering is potius aper — they talk of Escort being wanted North of Chalcis!

While Lear was sketching through Chalcis, my business meanwhile was to learn something of the state of the country in which our route was now to lie. Alarming letters had followed us from Athens: “The Government have received information that the insurgents[28] have reappeared in force upon the frontier and in Northern Greece. Take good advice at Chalcis when you are about to leave it for Thebes . . . .” As we had letters to some of the chief men of the place, the families of Boudouris and Ducas,[29] names of medieval history and of modern interest, there was no difficulty in obtaining advice, and the result was that we changed our route and, instead of going to Thebes and through the heart of the country to Delphi, we decided on making a week’s tour in Euboea, which was free from “insurgents,” was untrodden ground to travellers for the most part, and abounding, by all accounts, in beautiful mountain and woodland scenery, and we had letters to two English proprietors who had bought land in the island, since the war.

Lear had a wish to draw the sites of the two classic scenes which we had seen from a distance from the Attic side: Eretria, the old rival of Chalcis, the unhappy town on which the vengeance of the Persians had fallen before Marathon, and Cumi at the back of the island, the reputed founder of colonies bearing the same name on the Campanian shore of Italy and in Asia Minor.[30] From there we projected a week’s tour, crossing the lower slopes of Mount Dirphe to the wooded district of Achmet Aga, in the centre of the island, the Noel property, and to Castaniotissa at the North end, where our letters also lay to Mr Leeves, an English proprietor, and possibly to cross from thence to the parts opposite Lamia and Thermopylae and the frontier on the North.[31]

Our first day’s route from Chalcis was South, by Eretria to Aliveri, along the shore, under the mountain, and looking on the opposite Attic shore which we had left, through olive woods of Vassiliko, to Eretria at sunset — the sun in golden light upon houses, Acropolis, and mountain above, and upon sea and shore, where once was harbour, and the ships, which the Persians carried off. At Aliveri we entered the great plain to Cumi on the Eastern coast, and left the shores of the Euripus, with regret for loss of the daily sea baths we had enjoyed on either shore morning and mid-day. The sketch at Aliveri is marked by a vignette in the corner, which adds a humorous interest – a string of mules, laden with fir poles slung St Andrew’s cross wise, had shied at the white umbrella of the artist and much disturbed him in his sketch {sketch 53}. He has described the scene in which easel, umbrella and artist are toppled over with a legend of exclamation — “Ah! Croce di San Andrea!!

The next series of sketches, not less than twenty-five in number, during the next week, represent a great variety of Euboean scenery, mountain, and wood with distant views, and glen, and plain, comparatively unknown, and beautiful. Lear revelled in the scenes — “far finer than he had ever seen in the way of forest”, “finer than three times multiplied Dovedale and Derbyshire” — forest scenery, unusual in any other part of Greece, for Euboea had escaped the ravages of the Turks and Greeks in the late war, for the most part.

They illustrate the topography of the island, divided nearly in half by the great plain between the Northern and Southern blocks of mountain, Kandili and Dirphe in the North and centre, and the Karysto range on the South. This great plain is the waist of the long body of the island and stretching from Aliveri on the Western channel to Cumi on the Eastern Sea, and was the Lelantean plain, the most fertile granary of the island, which had in Venetian times a special officer to look after its irrigation and regulate the export of its harvests: “whose famous vineyards were in ancient days an object of unceasing strife between the rival cities of Chalcis and Eretria”.

Monday 19 June [continued]

We dined at noon (soup, fish, curry, roast fowl and pudding). After coffee and pipe, slept till 2, when old Janni packed up and packed us off in a hurry. Baggage badly loaded, and fell off close to the town. Thence we went by a beastly paved road, coasting the low shallow straits. Many springs of clear water running from below the harsh, bare, rocky hill on our left. (We passed an Aqueduct half a mile from Chalcis.) A long tract of very pretty ground, full of fine olives, succeeded, with Mt Dirphe always in view. Drew — the ground overspread with Acanthus, Clematis, etc. From 4 to 6 p.m. tiresome undulations of uninteresting low slopes near the sea — now and then a peep of the Oripo shore opposite. 6.30. a world of Lentisk, with garden paths. Just before sunset we got to the plain of Eretria, in time to secure the shadows of the mountain and Acropolis Hill — very fine and wild, and might make a good picture, with its deep-rooted Lentisk foreground, its gray rocky-path sides, its red road winding away, and its intense lilac distant hills. Janni went on before. While C. and I stayed to sketch, mules laden with long cross beams of wood nearly destroyed me, upsetting artist, sketching stool and all. {sketch 53} Little is left of the ancient Eretria, and the modern village is a queer dishevelled place of small square houses — like boxes or dominoes — many roofless and falling. We found things partly ready in one of these empty stalls — a strange land is this Greece! And after half an hour they gave us as good a tea as one could have in Grosvenor or Belgrave Square.


[27] There was a substantial Black population in Greece at this period, brought into the Ottoman Empire as slaves, often originally from the Sudan.

[28] Although the new Greek Constitution of 1844 had established a parliament and limited the powers of the King, sporadic uprisings continued, encouraged by the European revolutions of 1848. The area near Lamia was particularly unsettled.

[29] Vassilios Boudouris was a prominent Greek politician from Euboea, where his family owned magnesite and chromium mines. Descendants of the Doucas family, originally Byzantine nobility, still lived in Euboea.

[30] Ancient Cumi (modern Kymi) founded Cumae in Southern Italy and Cyme in Asia Minor.

[31] Before 1881 the Greek-Turkish border was only a short distance north of Lamia.

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