Thursday 20 April 2017

Edward Lear - part 15

1884 Self-Portrait

Edward Lear (1812  - 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, and is known now mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised. His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to illustrate birds and animals; making coloured drawings during his journeys, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books; as an illustrator of Alfred Tennyson's poems. As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes, and alphabets. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennyson's poetry.

For a full biography see part 1, and for earlier works see parts 1 - 14 also.

This is part 15 of 21- part series on the works of Edward Lear.


1862c A Nonsense Alphabet:


A were some Ants


B was a Broom

C was a Cat

D was a Duck

E was an Eagle

F were some Fish

G was a Goat

H was a Hat

I was some Ice

J was a Jar

K was a Kite

L was a Letter

M was a Mill

N were some Nuts

O was an Owl

P was a Pig

Q was a Quail

R was a Rabbit

S was a Snail

T was a Tower

U was a Ukase

V was a Veil

W was a Whale

X was King Xerxes

Y was a Yew

Z was some Zinc

1863 Views in the Seven Ionian Islands
 20 tinted lithographed plates published by Edward Lear:


Title page View from "One Gun Battery", Corfu

No. 1. View from above the village of Ascension, Corfú

No. 2. Mount San Salvador, Corfu

No. 3. View from the Orange Gardens of Viro, Corfu

No. 4. View from the route to Benitsa, near Gastouri, Corfu

No. 5. View from the hill of Santi Deka, Corfu

No. 6. Palaiokastritza, Corfu

No. 7. Castel Sant' Angelo, Corfu

No. 8. The villages of Léfchimo, Corfu

No. 9. View from the Fort, Santa Maura

No. 10. Amaxíchi and the Fort, Santa Maura

No. 11. Capo Ducato, or Sappho's Leap, Santa Maura

12. Argostóli and the Black Mountain, Cephalonia

No. 13 Walls of Ancient Samos, Cephalonia

No. 14. Town and Fortress of Assos, Cephalonia

15. View from the Castle Hill, looking towards Monte Skopó, Zante

No. 16 View from Monte Skopó, Zante

No. 17. View from the village of Galaro, Zante

No. 18. Town and Harbour of Caïo, Paxo

( No. 18. see above ) Town and Harbour of Caïo, Paxo
hand-coloured lithograph

No. 19. Harbour and Town of Vathý, Ithaca

No. 20. The Castle and Town of Cerigo and Port of Kapsáli, Cerico

1865 Venice:


1865 A Venetian Sail Barge
brush and red ink, watercolour, touches of body-colour, traces of graphite 11.5 x 17 cm

1865 San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice, Italy
pencil and watercolour 16.5 x 26 cm

1865 Santa Maria della Salute, Venice
watercolour over pencil heightened with touches of body-colour 11.5 x 17.5 cm

1865 Venice
watercolour over pencil 29.5 x 49 cm

1865-84 Santa Maria della Salute, Venice, at Sunset
watercolour and gouache over graphite on wove paper 11.9 x 17.7 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

1865-66 Malta:


1866 A Distant View of Mdina, Malta
watercolour over pencil heightened with body-colour and gum arabic 16.2 x 26 cm

1866 Ainselim, Gozo
watercolour over pencil with pen and brown ink and body-colour 22.1 x 35.5 cm

1866 Fomm Ir-Rih, Malta
pen and brown ink and watercolour 15.3 x 25.3 cm

1866 Gozo
watercolour over pencil with pen and brown ink 19.5 x 35.6 cm

1866 Mdina
pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour on buff paper 33 x 52 cm

1866 Mtahleb, Malta
watercolour heightened with body-colour 36.2 x 53.3 cm

1866 Valetta, Malta
pen and brown ink over pencil with watercolour 36.1 x 54.7 cm