Edward Lear (1812-1888)

The Temple of Amáda and the surrounding landscape at Nubia came as a welcome surprise to Lear who reported back to a friend in England that 'Nubia delighted me, it isn't a bit like Egypt, exept that there's a river in both. 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' (Letter to Lady Waldegrave, 9 March 1867, in Lady Strachey, ed., Later Letters of Edward Lear, London, 1911, p. 83).

For other works by Lear in Egypt see lots 71, 72, 74 and 75.