Zographou, Mount Athos
About this artwork
Lear travelled to Mount Athos in northern Greece, the Holy Mountain of the Orthodox Church, in September 1856. He spent three weeks visiting the twenty principal monasteries and made fifty sketches. He hoped these would prove valuable material for new commissions, as few western Europeans had then visited Athos. The monastery of Zographou stands surrounded by cypress groves at the centre of the Athos peninsula. It is home to a community of Bulgarian monks. Lear has included a miniature study of a doorway in the right foreground of this sketch.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Edward Lear (1812 - 1888) English
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title:Zographou, Mount Athos
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date created:1856
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materials:Pen and brown ink and watercolour over pencil on buff paper
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measurements:33.97 x 50.80 cm
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object type:
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credit line:Accepted by H.M. Government in lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the National Gallery of Scotland, 2003
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accession number:D 5551.14
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gallery:
Edward Lear
Edward Lear
Although now best known for his nonsense verse, Edward Lear was a superb draughtsman, a talented musician, an intrepid traveller and an outstanding landscape artist and travel writer. He was born in London and began to draw commercially at the age of sixteen. He developed a passion for travelling...