Oberwesel

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Government Art Collection

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

River Rhine, Germany, Oberwesel: Schönburg Castle, Oberwesel

Subjects

walking, topography, genre, townscape/cityscape, mountain, river bank, river, German (subject, nationality), man, woman, fence, path, house, castle, church

Materials & Techniques

paper (as artists material), pencil, chalk, chalk drawing, pencil drawing, white (Colour)

Artist

Edward Lear (1812 - 1888)

Title

Oberwesel

Date

17 August 1837

Medium

Pencil and white chalk on paper

Dimensions

height: 19.00 cm, width: 27.50 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from John Teed, October 1954

Inscription

top left: Oberwesel. / August 17. 1837 [or 1839]

GAC number

2863