EDWARD LEAR (BRITISH 1812-1888)
WADY HALFEH, EGYPT
Estimate: £4,000 - £6,000
Auction: Session Two - Thursday 20th February at 10am
Description
Signed with the monogram, dated 1884 and inscribed ‘Wady Halfey Feb 3 1887’, watercolour
Dimensions
9cm x 17.5cm (3.5in x 7in)
Provenance
Childs Gallery, Boston;
Agnew's London No. 15361
Footnote
This work shows Wadi Halfa situated on the shore of Lake Nubia (Lake Nasser) on the present-day Sudanese-Egyptian border. Lear was particularly interested in the stark contrast between the landscape in Lower Egypt and Nubia writing in a letter to Lady Waldegrave 'Nubia delighted me, it isn't a bit like Egypt... Sad, stern, uncompromising landscape - dark ashy purple lines of hills, piles of granite rocks, fringes of palm, and ever and anon astonishing ruins of oldest temples.'