Edward Lear, British 1812-1888- Sunset on the road by the...

Edward Lear,
British 1812-1888-

Sunset on the road by the Nile;

pencil and watercolour heightened with bodycolour and gum arabic on paper, signed with the artist's monogram 'EL' (lower left), 16.5 x 26 cm.

Provenance:
with Walker's Galleries, London.
Anon. sale, Christie's, London, 10 July 2014, lot 223.

Note:
Lear was one of the leading English landscape artists of the 19th century, and among his most celebrated works are the drawings and watercolours that he executed during his wide travels around the Mediterranean. These journeys included two trips to Egypt, where he was frustrated by his inability to capture the clarity of its light and brilliance of its colour in oils, particularly as oil dried so quickly in the local atmosphere. He was therefore limited to watercolour sketches, which he carefully annotated and then often worked up on a larger scale on canvas upon his return to his studio in England.

The present work is a striking example of Lear's watercolours from his Egyptian travels, exhibiting the strong light which characterises many of his works, with the pink hues here imbuing the scene with a highly romantic, almost dream-like quality, and with this sense of unreality further reinforced by the elongated outlines of the camels.