Colombo, River Scene

Location

Country: Sri Lanka
City: Colombo
Place: British High Commission

Edward Lear, best known for nonsense verse and limericks, was also a topographical landscape painter, musician, travel writer, ornithological and natural history draughtsman and an illustrator. Largely self-taught as a painter, he began by drawing animals at Knowsley Hall menagerie; later moving to landscape painting. He lived in Italy from 1837 to 1848, returning briefly when Queen Victoria requested twelve drawing lessons. He later studied at the Royal Academy Schools (1850-51). In 1852 he was introduced to William Holman Hunt, whose paintings became a great influence. From the early 1860s, Lear’s reputation as a landscape painter declined, perhaps partly a result of the mass-produced watercolours he made, which he called ‘Tyrants’.

Places

Sri Lanka, Kelani River, Colombo

Subjects

topography, landscape C19th, seascape/coastal scene, tree, palm, river bank, river, man, house

Materials & Techniques

paper (as artists material), watercolour (as artists materials), watercolour (as object name)

Artist

Edward Lear (1812 - 1888)

Title

Colombo, River Scene

Date

10 December 1874

Medium

Watercolour on paper

Dimensions

height: 27.00 cm, width: 48.00 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Leger Galleries, July 1973

Inscription

bl: 815. / Colombo. / 10. December. 1874 [and copious colour notes]

GAC number

10673