Lear Drawings by Journey
Notes to Drawings by Journey table above
Total (dated landscape) drawings estimated are taken from the lists compiled by Lear himself of dated landscape drawings for 15 of his journeys held at the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA), or from the highest sequential number on a Lear drawing on that journey (see ‘Drawing nos. noted by Lear’ below), or estimated from those in public collections and those known to have been auctioned between 1958 and 2014, or from other sources including the specific research studies. Where the figure is not from one of Lear’s own lists it is shown in italics as a minimum figure. The total estimate of 8,224 drawings is therefore a minimum figure, and calculations to arrive at an overall estimate show the likely figure to be nearer 9,000.
Lear record YCBA has entries for all the journeys for which lists made by Lear are held at YCBA. In some cases one or more drawings are shown as being on mounts. The reference number in brackets is to the Lear folder at YCBA in the Lear archive.
Lushington record YCBA has entries for all the journeys for which lists made by Lear’s executor, Franklin Lushington, are held at YCBA. In some cases only numbers of mounts are shown. The reference number in brackets is to the Lushington folder at YCBA in the Lear archive.
Drawing nos. noted by Lear refer to his sequential numbers on the drawings themselves, and the highest number so far recorded on a drawing is shown. As further drawings may have been completed this number is shown as the minimum. In the absence of a YCBA list it is taken as the estimate for drawings on that journey.
Drawings in public collections are drawn from the paper Edward Lear works in Public Collections and in Other Collections Open to the Public. This includes a search facility (usable with Adobe).
Available at : https://www.edwardlearsociety.org/edward-lear-works-in-public-collections-and-in-other-collections-open-to-the-public/ and
http://www.nonsenselit.org/pdf/EL_works_in_public_collections_2020-07.pdf
Research source. The purpose of this column is to show studies specifically intended to establish the details and provenance of as many dated landscape drawings as possible. These are of interest in their own right to give details and illustrate with images the drawings Lear made on particular journeys. They also help to build up a catalogue raisonné of his work on landscape drawings. The surname of the author (or developer in the case of websites) is given and the reference list below gives more details.
Illustration and reading sources. Listed are books providing illustrations and/or descriptions of Lear’s specific travels, in several cases focused on the specific journey against which the entry is made. The surname of the author is given and the reference list below gives more details. (For some journeys where none is shown reference needs to be made to the general biographies on Lear’s life, notably Noakes and Uglow).
Main collection sources. These are collections open to the public or to researchers, with five or more dated landscape drawings of the specific journey. They are also referenced from the paper referred to under Drawings in public collections above which details all known dated drawings in all such collections but only by the journey year and location, not specific place. Images of the drawings held are often but not always available on the collection’s website.
Notes relate to any of the previous columns for the journey, but particularly give auction sales numbers from 1958 to 2014 which in many cases contribute to the estimate of total drawings.
January 2024
References
Camelia, G., Graziosi, M. and Guida, F. (2018) Edward Lear: Visioni inedite della Costa di Amalfi. Amalfi: Centro di Cultura e Storia Amalfitana.
Dehejia, V. (1989) Impossible Picturesqueness – Edward Lear’s Indian Watercolours 1873–1875. Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., 1989, and New York: Columbia University Press, 1989.
Duckworth, S. (2023) Edward Lear in the Peloponnese 1849
https://edwardlearandthepeloponnese.weebly.com/
Duckworth, S. (2019) Edward Lear and Mount Athos: His Visit in 1856. https://edwardlearandmountathos.weebly.com/
Duckworth, S. (2012) 1864: Edward Lear and Crete. http://edwardlearandcrete.weebly.com/
Duckworth, S. (2011) “Edward Lear’s Cretan Drawings.” In The New Griffon -12. Athens: The Gennadius Library. 103-115.
Fowler, R. and Wells. E. (2013) Edward Lear’s Grecian Travels: Excerpts from the Work of Edward Lear and Charles Church (1848). http://edwardlear.westminster.org.uk/
Fowler, R. (2023) Lear’s Projected ‘Topography of Greece’ https://rowenafowler.com/EdwardLear/TopographyGreece
Fowler, R. (2019) Lear in Greece 1856. rowenafowler.com/EdwardLear/greece1856
Fowler, R. (2019) Lear in Greece and Albania 1857. http://www.rowenafowler.com/362750962
Fowler, R (1984) Edward Lear - the Cretan Journal. Limni, Evia: Denise Harvey (Publisher). Gaschke, J. (2009)
Gaetano, Raffaele (2021) Per la Calabria selvagia: 109 disegni inediti di Edward Lear. Reggio Calabria: liritti Editorre.
Gaschke, J. (2009) Edward Lear: Egyptian Sketches. London: National Maritime Museum.
Graziosi, Marco (2022) 'Prima di Gregorovius: Edward Lear, i Caetani e Ninfa' in Ninfa: Percezioni nelia scienza, letteratura e belle arti nel XIX e all'inizio del XX secolo, ed. Michael Matheus, Regensburg, p.165-92.
Hyman, S. (1988) Edward Lear in the Levant: Travels in Albania, Greece and Turkey in Europe, 1848–1849. London: John Murray (Publishers) Ltd.
Lear, E. (1841) Views in Rome and its Environs. London: Thomas McLean.
Lear, E. (1846) Illustrated Excursions in Italy, Vols. I and II. London: Thomas McLean.
Lear, E. (1851) Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania, &c. London: Richard Bentley.
Lear, E. (1852) Journals of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria &c. London: Richard Bentley.
Lear, E. (1863) Views in the Seven Ionian Islands. London.
Lear, E. (1870) Journal of a Landscape Painter in Corsica. London: Robert John Bush.
Lear, E. Indian Journals 1873-75, Houghton Library MS Eng. 797.4
Montgomery, M. (2005) Lear’s Italy: In the Footsteps of Edward Lear. London: Cadogan.
Murphy, R. (ed.) (1953) Watercolours and extracts from the diary of Edward Lear (1873-1875). London, New York: Jarrolds Publishers.
Nugent, C. (2009) Edward Lear the Landscape Artist: Tours of Ireland and the English Lakes, 1835 & 1836. Grasmere: The Wordsworth Trust.
Randazzo, Giuliana (2021) Il 'Sicilian giro' di Edward Lear : Itinerari e visioni inedite. Soveria Mannelli: Rubettino
Russell, Q. (2014/15) “In the footsteps of Edward Lear (1812–1888): Assessing the legacy of his 1848 Balkan journey.” The British Art Journal, Vol. 15, No. 2: 59-67.
Sherrard, P. (1988) Edward Lear: The Corfu Years. Athens – Dedham: Denise Harvey & Company.
Tsigakou, F-M. (1997) Edward Lear’s Greece from the Gennadeion Collections. Gennadius Library and Organisation for the Cultural Capital of Europe Thessaloniki 1997.
Varriano, J. (2014) Edward Lear in Malta (1865-6). Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti.
Zernioti, D. (2012) Edward Lear & the Ionian Islands. Corfu: Corfu Museum of Asian Art.
Biographers
The main Lear biographers are Vivien Noakes and Jenny Uglow :
Noakes, V. (2004) Edward Lear: The Life of a Wanderer. Stroud, Gloucs.: Sutton Publishing Limited.
Uglow, J. (2017) Mr Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense. London: Faber & Faber Limited.
but several other biographies which follow Lear’s life chronologically and describe his travels have been written, of which the most noted are :
Davidson, A. (1938) Edward Lear, Landscape Painter and Nonsense Poet 1812-88. London: John Murray.
Levi, P. (1995) Edward Lear: A Biography. London: Macmillan.
In the context of this site, Vivien Noakes’ book on Lear as a painter is also highly relevant and a reference source for good illustrations, as is the catalogue for the 1985 Royal Academy exhibition on Edward Lear :
Noakes, V. (1991) The Painter Edward Lear. Newton Abbot and London: David & Charles.
Royal Academy Exhibition Catalogue (1985) Edward Lear. London: Royal Academy of Arts.
Lear’s Diaries
The diaries or journals Lear probably kept up to 1857 have been lost. However Charles Church, Lear’s friend, transcribed after Lear’s death much of his journal of travels in Greece in 1848 and 1849. These transcriptions are held by Westminster School and are reproduced by permission in the references above :
Fowler, R. and Wells. E. (2013) Edward Lear’s Grecian Travels: Excerpts from the Work of Edward Lear and Charles Church (1848).
Duckworth, S. (2023) Edward Lear in the Peloponnese 1849
Microfilms of Lear’s diaries from 1858 to December 1887 are available at the Houghton Library, Harvard on their Hollis website under reference MS Eng.797.3. The diaries are sometimes a little difficult to read and a transcription has been made by Marco Graziosi from the commencement in 1858 to 16 April 1865 at https://leardiaries.wordpress.com/about/ There is a break from 4 April to 31 May 1864 as the diaries for that period had already been published in transcription by Rowena Fowler in Edward Lear – The Cretan Journal noted in references above. Other selective transcriptions are in the books above by Sherrard (Corfu) and Murphy (India).
Total (dated landscape) drawings estimated are taken from the lists compiled by Lear himself of dated landscape drawings for 15 of his journeys held at the Yale Center for British Art (YCBA), or from the highest sequential number on a Lear drawing on that journey (see ‘Drawing nos. noted by Lear’ below), or estimated from those in public collections and those known to have been auctioned between 1958 and 2014, or from other sources including the specific research studies. Where the figure is not from one of Lear’s own lists it is shown in italics as a minimum figure. The total estimate of 8,224 drawings is therefore a minimum figure, and calculations to arrive at an overall estimate show the likely figure to be nearer 9,000.
Lear record YCBA has entries for all the journeys for which lists made by Lear are held at YCBA. In some cases one or more drawings are shown as being on mounts. The reference number in brackets is to the Lear folder at YCBA in the Lear archive.
Lushington record YCBA has entries for all the journeys for which lists made by Lear’s executor, Franklin Lushington, are held at YCBA. In some cases only numbers of mounts are shown. The reference number in brackets is to the Lushington folder at YCBA in the Lear archive.
Drawing nos. noted by Lear refer to his sequential numbers on the drawings themselves, and the highest number so far recorded on a drawing is shown. As further drawings may have been completed this number is shown as the minimum. In the absence of a YCBA list it is taken as the estimate for drawings on that journey.
Drawings in public collections are drawn from the paper Edward Lear works in Public Collections and in Other Collections Open to the Public. This includes a search facility (usable with Adobe).
Available at : https://www.edwardlearsociety.org/edward-lear-works-in-public-collections-and-in-other-collections-open-to-the-public/ and
http://www.nonsenselit.org/pdf/EL_works_in_public_collections_2020-07.pdf
Research source. The purpose of this column is to show studies specifically intended to establish the details and provenance of as many dated landscape drawings as possible. These are of interest in their own right to give details and illustrate with images the drawings Lear made on particular journeys. They also help to build up a catalogue raisonné of his work on landscape drawings. The surname of the author (or developer in the case of websites) is given and the reference list below gives more details.
Illustration and reading sources. Listed are books providing illustrations and/or descriptions of Lear’s specific travels, in several cases focused on the specific journey against which the entry is made. The surname of the author is given and the reference list below gives more details. (For some journeys where none is shown reference needs to be made to the general biographies on Lear’s life, notably Noakes and Uglow).
Main collection sources. These are collections open to the public or to researchers, with five or more dated landscape drawings of the specific journey. They are also referenced from the paper referred to under Drawings in public collections above which details all known dated drawings in all such collections but only by the journey year and location, not specific place. Images of the drawings held are often but not always available on the collection’s website.
Notes relate to any of the previous columns for the journey, but particularly give auction sales numbers from 1958 to 2014 which in many cases contribute to the estimate of total drawings.
January 2024
References
Camelia, G., Graziosi, M. and Guida, F. (2018) Edward Lear: Visioni inedite della Costa di Amalfi. Amalfi: Centro di Cultura e Storia Amalfitana.
Dehejia, V. (1989) Impossible Picturesqueness – Edward Lear’s Indian Watercolours 1873–1875. Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd., 1989, and New York: Columbia University Press, 1989.
Duckworth, S. (2023) Edward Lear in the Peloponnese 1849
https://edwardlearandthepeloponnese.weebly.com/
Duckworth, S. (2019) Edward Lear and Mount Athos: His Visit in 1856. https://edwardlearandmountathos.weebly.com/
Duckworth, S. (2012) 1864: Edward Lear and Crete. http://edwardlearandcrete.weebly.com/
Duckworth, S. (2011) “Edward Lear’s Cretan Drawings.” In The New Griffon -12. Athens: The Gennadius Library. 103-115.
Fowler, R. and Wells. E. (2013) Edward Lear’s Grecian Travels: Excerpts from the Work of Edward Lear and Charles Church (1848). http://edwardlear.westminster.org.uk/
Fowler, R. (2023) Lear’s Projected ‘Topography of Greece’ https://rowenafowler.com/EdwardLear/TopographyGreece
Fowler, R. (2019) Lear in Greece 1856. rowenafowler.com/EdwardLear/greece1856
Fowler, R. (2019) Lear in Greece and Albania 1857. http://www.rowenafowler.com/362750962
Fowler, R (1984) Edward Lear - the Cretan Journal. Limni, Evia: Denise Harvey (Publisher). Gaschke, J. (2009)
Gaetano, Raffaele (2021) Per la Calabria selvagia: 109 disegni inediti di Edward Lear. Reggio Calabria: liritti Editorre.
Gaschke, J. (2009) Edward Lear: Egyptian Sketches. London: National Maritime Museum.
Graziosi, Marco (2022) 'Prima di Gregorovius: Edward Lear, i Caetani e Ninfa' in Ninfa: Percezioni nelia scienza, letteratura e belle arti nel XIX e all'inizio del XX secolo, ed. Michael Matheus, Regensburg, p.165-92.
Hyman, S. (1988) Edward Lear in the Levant: Travels in Albania, Greece and Turkey in Europe, 1848–1849. London: John Murray (Publishers) Ltd.
Lear, E. (1841) Views in Rome and its Environs. London: Thomas McLean.
Lear, E. (1846) Illustrated Excursions in Italy, Vols. I and II. London: Thomas McLean.
Lear, E. (1851) Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania, &c. London: Richard Bentley.
Lear, E. (1852) Journals of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria &c. London: Richard Bentley.
Lear, E. (1863) Views in the Seven Ionian Islands. London.
Lear, E. (1870) Journal of a Landscape Painter in Corsica. London: Robert John Bush.
Lear, E. Indian Journals 1873-75, Houghton Library MS Eng. 797.4
Montgomery, M. (2005) Lear’s Italy: In the Footsteps of Edward Lear. London: Cadogan.
Murphy, R. (ed.) (1953) Watercolours and extracts from the diary of Edward Lear (1873-1875). London, New York: Jarrolds Publishers.
Nugent, C. (2009) Edward Lear the Landscape Artist: Tours of Ireland and the English Lakes, 1835 & 1836. Grasmere: The Wordsworth Trust.
Randazzo, Giuliana (2021) Il 'Sicilian giro' di Edward Lear : Itinerari e visioni inedite. Soveria Mannelli: Rubettino
Russell, Q. (2014/15) “In the footsteps of Edward Lear (1812–1888): Assessing the legacy of his 1848 Balkan journey.” The British Art Journal, Vol. 15, No. 2: 59-67.
Sherrard, P. (1988) Edward Lear: The Corfu Years. Athens – Dedham: Denise Harvey & Company.
Tsigakou, F-M. (1997) Edward Lear’s Greece from the Gennadeion Collections. Gennadius Library and Organisation for the Cultural Capital of Europe Thessaloniki 1997.
Varriano, J. (2014) Edward Lear in Malta (1865-6). Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti.
Zernioti, D. (2012) Edward Lear & the Ionian Islands. Corfu: Corfu Museum of Asian Art.
Biographers
The main Lear biographers are Vivien Noakes and Jenny Uglow :
Noakes, V. (2004) Edward Lear: The Life of a Wanderer. Stroud, Gloucs.: Sutton Publishing Limited.
Uglow, J. (2017) Mr Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense. London: Faber & Faber Limited.
but several other biographies which follow Lear’s life chronologically and describe his travels have been written, of which the most noted are :
Davidson, A. (1938) Edward Lear, Landscape Painter and Nonsense Poet 1812-88. London: John Murray.
Levi, P. (1995) Edward Lear: A Biography. London: Macmillan.
In the context of this site, Vivien Noakes’ book on Lear as a painter is also highly relevant and a reference source for good illustrations, as is the catalogue for the 1985 Royal Academy exhibition on Edward Lear :
Noakes, V. (1991) The Painter Edward Lear. Newton Abbot and London: David & Charles.
Royal Academy Exhibition Catalogue (1985) Edward Lear. London: Royal Academy of Arts.
Lear’s Diaries
The diaries or journals Lear probably kept up to 1857 have been lost. However Charles Church, Lear’s friend, transcribed after Lear’s death much of his journal of travels in Greece in 1848 and 1849. These transcriptions are held by Westminster School and are reproduced by permission in the references above :
Fowler, R. and Wells. E. (2013) Edward Lear’s Grecian Travels: Excerpts from the Work of Edward Lear and Charles Church (1848).
Duckworth, S. (2023) Edward Lear in the Peloponnese 1849
Microfilms of Lear’s diaries from 1858 to December 1887 are available at the Houghton Library, Harvard on their Hollis website under reference MS Eng.797.3. The diaries are sometimes a little difficult to read and a transcription has been made by Marco Graziosi from the commencement in 1858 to 16 April 1865 at https://leardiaries.wordpress.com/about/ There is a break from 4 April to 31 May 1864 as the diaries for that period had already been published in transcription by Rowena Fowler in Edward Lear – The Cretan Journal noted in references above. Other selective transcriptions are in the books above by Sherrard (Corfu) and Murphy (India).