With the help of Stephen Duckworth, Rowena Fowler has just added to her website a detailed page titled ‘Lear’s Projected Topography of Greece’.
Of all Edward Lear’s extensive travels, he retained a special affection for Greece, and a feeling that his own vision as a topographical artist might suit the Greek landscape.
“I cannot but think that Greece has been most imperfectly illustrated . . . the vast yet beautifully simply sweeping lines of the hills have hardly been represented I fancy—nor the primitive dry foregrounds of Elgin marble peasants &c. What do you think of a huge work (if I can do all Greece)?” (from a letter of August 1848).
From 1848 onwards, Lear travelled widely in what is now Greece, making approximately 1,500 sketches. He returned constantly to his Greek subjects in a range of artistic mediums (lithography, pen and ink, watercolour, oil) and in his travel writing.
For further information visit Rowena’s website