Edward Lear (1812-1888)

Edward Lear (1812-1888)
View of the Nile at Es Shelaal, Egypt
Inscribed and dated Es Shelaal/4-4.45 pm/28 Jany 1867 (lower left), numbered 249 (lower right), and further inscribed with colour notes throughout
Pencil, pen and brown ink, and watercolour, heightened with white
29.2 x 54.2cm; 11½ x 21¼in

Provenance:
Mr and Mrs Charles Beecher Hogan, Woodbridge Connecticut, by 1960;
By descent to Peter Russell Spokes;
By descent to Ann Spoke Symonds, Oxford

Exhibited:
Connecticut, Yale University Art Gallery, Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture Collected by Yale Alumni, May-June 1960, no.180

This work dates from Edward Lear's second trip to the Nile in 1867. At the beginning of January he travelled south from Cairo, meeting his Canadian cousin Archie Jones, at Luxor. On the morning of the 27th January he sketched at Aswan before making his way to Es Shelaal, where he executed the present work. He was still at Es Shelaal on the 29th and by the 30th was at the first cataract at Philae.