Edward Lear - views

[A view of Eze, Côte d'Azur, France]
Price Realized £12,500
inscribed and dated 'Eza. [sic.]/12.30 P.M./1.15/6 December 1864.' and numbered '(4)' (lower right) and further inscribed with colour notes
pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour
15 3/8 x 21 7/8 in. (39.1 x 55.6 cm.)

Lear spent the winter of 1864-1865 in Nice and at the beginning of December he travelled up the coast to the town of Eze to execute a number of drawings including the present watercolour. He was taken by the landscape and noted down in his diary entry that day: 'above Villefranche I got out and walked (it was clear & cold) to the spot I wanted to draw Eze from above... A strangely wild & magnificent coast scene is this, I know no finer. It was bitterly cold & the wind very high - I was glad to have a thick cloak...Eze is assuredly an astonishing place - & so various' (Diary, 6.xii.64).

[A View of Eze, Cote d'Azur, France]
inscribed and dated 'Eza. [sic]/12.30pm P.M./1.15.6 December 1864.' and numbered '(4)' (l.r.) and further inscribed with colour notes
pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour
15 3/8 x 21 7/8"
Lear spent the winter of 1864-5 in Nice.