Live Auction 7891Victorian & British Impressionist Pictures Including Drawings and Watercolours
Edward Lear (1812-1888)
Lot 72

Edward Lear (1812-1888)

View of Philae at Sunset, Egypt

Closed15 December 2010

Price Realised

GBP 13,750

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Edward Lear (1812-1888)
View of Philae at Sunset, Egypt
signed with monogram and dated '1854/1862' (lower left)
pencil, watercolour and gum arabic heightened with touches of white, on paper
6 7/8 x 9¾ in. (17.5 x 24.8 cm.)

Anonymous sale; Christie's, London, 14 November 1972, lot 106.

Specialist note

Philae was one of Lear's most-loved subjects, so much so that he said that 'it is impossible to describe the place to you, any further than by saying it is more like a real fairy island that anything else I can compare it to' (Letter to his sister Ann, 7 February 1854, in V. Noakes, Edward Lear 1812-1888, London, 1985, p. 146).

For other works by Lear in Egypt see lots 71, 73, 74 and 75.