Lear Nonsense drawing of a Owly Pussycat
LEAR, Edward (1812-1888).
Ye Owly Pusseycatte, a new Beast found in ye Island of New South Wales.
Watercolor on laid paper. Inscribed with title lower left.
5 1/4" x 3 1/2" sheet; 12 1/8" x 10" framed.
Provenance: George and Fanny Coombe (née Drewitt), Peppering House, Sussex.
The illustration for the most famous of all English nursery rhymes.This is likely to be the earliest drawing in which Lear combines the Owl and the Pussycat, assuming it also dates to the mid 1840s. He is perched on a branch smoking a churchwarden pipe and wearing a settler’s wide-awake hat with two peacock feathers attached and a smiling moon beyond. The mention of New South Wales suggests this drawing dates to a similar period as an undated pen and ink drawing in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York entitled `Portraites of the inditchenous beestes of New Olland’ which Vivien Noakes suggests was inspired by John Gould’s visit to Australia in 1838 to work on Birds of Australia (see Vivien Noakes, Edward Lear 1812-1888, exhibition catalogue, 1986, p.180, no.90). New Holland was the historical name for Australia.The Drewitt family were childhood friends of Lear living at Peppering House near Arundel, Sussex. Lear’s sister Sarah married Charles Street in 1822 and moved to near Arundel so Lear was a frequent visitor to the area. Fanny Drewitt married George Coombe probably in 1831 and they lived at Peppering House. A group of letters from Lear to the Coombes were rediscovered in the 1990s and were at Christies’ on June 29, 1995. They are now in the Frederick Warne Archive. They provide a useful early record of Lear’s life and movements.
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LEAR, Edward (1812-1888).
Ye Owly Pusseycatte, a new Beast found in ye Island of New South Wales.
Watercolor on laid paper. Inscribed with title lower left.
5 1/4" x 3 1/2" sheet; 12 1/8" x 10" framed.
Provenance: George and Fanny Coombe (née Drewitt), Peppering House, Sussex.
The illustration for the most famous of all English nursery rhymes.This is likely to be the earliest drawing in which Lear combines the Owl and the Pussycat, assuming it also dates to the mid 1840s. He is perched on a branch smoking a churchwarden pipe and wearing a settler’s wide-awake hat with two peacock feathers attached and a smiling moon beyond. The mention of New South Wales suggests this drawing dates to a similar period as an undated pen and ink drawing in the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York entitled `Portraites of the inditchenous beestes of New Olland’ which Vivien Noakes suggests was inspired by John Gould’s visit to Australia in 1838 to work on Birds of Australia (see Vivien Noakes, Edward Lear 1812-1888, exhibition catalogue, 1986, p.180, no.90). New Holland was the historical name for Australia.The Drewitt family were childhood friends of Lear living at Peppering House near Arundel, Sussex. Lear’s sister Sarah married Charles Street in 1822 and moved to near Arundel so Lear was a frequent visitor to the area. Fanny Drewitt married George Coombe probably in 1831 and they lived at Peppering House. A group of letters from Lear to the Coombes were rediscovered in the 1990s and were at Christies’ on June 29, 1995. They are now in the Frederick Warne Archive. They provide a useful early record of Lear’s life and movements.
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