About this artwork
Lear particularly relished painting sites of classical and historical interest. His motive for travelling to Greece was in part that the journey would ‘ensure me a stock of classical subjects for future paintings’. He thought Marathon ‘quite unchanged by time’ from the site which had seen battle between the Persians and the Athenians in 490 BC. Lear visited Marathon with his friend Charles Church in June 1848 and managed to sketch, despite having fallen from his horse and badly damaged his shoulder. Although this watercolour is dated 1848, it is in fact a later studio work.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Edward Lear (1812 - 1888) English
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title:Marathon
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date created:1848 - 1849
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materials:Watercolour and gouache
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measurements:17.14 x 37.14 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 5551.9
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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...