Property from a private Northern Irish collection
Edward Lear
Mount Etna, Sicily
Lot Closed
July 6, 02:32 PM GMT
Estimate
2,000 - 3,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from a private Northern Irish collection
Edward Lear
London 1812 - 1888 San Remo
Mount Etna, Sicily
Pen and brown ink and wash over pencil;
inscribed lower left: Etna. / 21 June 1847, further inscribed with colour notes, numbered lower right: 159
243 by 403 mm
where acquired by the present owner
Lear visited Sicily and Southern Italy with the Hon. John Proby in the summer of 1847. They reached Syracuse on 8 June and then travelled on to Catania and climbed Mount Etna from there. They returned to Palermo towards the end of the month.1
In a letter to Lord Carlingford, John Proby's father, written on 16 October 1847, Lear recalls his Sicilian tour describing his walk up Etna as a 'task' but one he was glad to have accomplished despite the 'extremes of heat and cold'.2
1. See: V. Noakes, Edward Lear - the Life of a Wanderer, London 1968, pp. 76-78