Live Auction 7891Victorian & British Impressionist Pictures Including Drawings and Watercolours
Edward Lear (1812-1888)
Lot 71

Edward Lear (1812-1888)

An Arab Encampment in the Sinai, near Gebal Serbal, Egypt

Closed15 December 2010

Price Realised

GBP 6,875

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Edward Lear (1812-1888)
An Arab Encampment in the Sinai, near Gebal Serbal, Egypt
signed with monogram (lower right)
pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour with gum arabic heightened with touches of bodycolour, on paper
4 5/8 x 7¼ in. (11.7 x 18.1 cm.)

F.H. Lushington (+); Christie's, London, 19 March 1968, lot 50.

Specialist note

Lear reached Sinai in January 1849 remarking in a letter to his sister Ann that 'the excessive & wonderful grandeur of the spot is not to be described, though i hope to shew [sic] you drawings of it - : the adaptation of the whole scene to that recorded in Scripture is equally astonishing' (Letter to his sister Ann, 16 January 1849, in V. Noakes, Edward Lear 1812-1888, London, 1985, p. 148).

According to an old catalogue note, the back of the original frame bore an inscription in the artist's hand which read; 'Gertrude Lushington from her affectionate godfather Edward Lear, August 9th, 1879'.