Monday, January 5, 2009

Edward Lear - Mount Sinai


1853
oil on canvas
circular
.
Lear arrived in Cairo on 6th Jan 1849 to join his friend John Cross and they planned to journey through the Sinai buying "beds, carpets, pipes, eatables etc.". They left on the 12th Jan following the route of the Exodus and his first sight of Mount Sinai (where it was believed Moses received the tablets) moved him greatly. Lear stayed in the famous monastery of St. Catherine, just visible in this painting,and made a number of sketches of the surroundings. A smaller variant is also known.

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