Live Auction 7635British Art on Paper
Edward Lear (1812-1888)
Lot 51 Property from an Estate

Edward Lear (1812-1888)

A view of Mahee, India

Closed10 December 2008

Price Realised

GBP 8,125

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Edward Lear (1812-1888)
A view of Mahee, India
signed with monogram (lower left) and inscribed 'Mahee' (lower right) with further inscription 'MAHEE, MALABAR.' (on the mount)
pencil and watercolour heightened with touches of bodycolour
6 5/8 x 10¼ in. (16.8 x 26 cm.)

Lady Adelaide Daumay.
Mrs Frank.
T. Bull.
Christie's, London, 22 March 1966, lot 47.
with Martyn Gregory, London.

Specialist note

Lear's expedition to India and Ceylon was the last, and longest, trip that he ever took. Lear was over sixty when Lord Northbrook (1826-1904), who was then Viceroy, invited him to travel to the sub-continent with all his expenses being taken care of. Initially he was reluctant to go, but on arrival he became 'nearly mad from sheer beauty & wonder of foliage! O new Palms!!! O flowers!! O creatures!! O beasts!! - anything more overpoweringly amazing cannot be Conceived!'. He reached Mahee at the beginning of November 1874, after travelling the country for almost a year, and was immediately taken by the scenery; '...the view there is a stunner!!! As a river scene can any other equal it?' (V. Noakes, Edward Lear, London, 1991, pp. 92-93).

Mahee is a small town on the Malabar coast in southern India on the Arabian Sea; its name means 'eyebrow of the sea' in the local language.