About this artwork
Lear first visited the island of Zante in 1848 and returned in May 1863 in order to make sketches for his volume of lithographs, ‘Views in the Seven Ionian Islands’. This sketch shows the view from the village of Galaró in the western hills of Zante, which overlooked a vast green plain of currant vines. Lear struggled to find ‘picturesque combinations of landscape’ on Zante. He described the plain as ‘one unbroken contrivance of future currant-dumplings and plum-puddings’. The inscriptions on this drawing note ‘Aloes’, ‘olives and Cypresses’ and ‘currants all’.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Edward Lear (1812 - 1888) English
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title:Zante (Zakinthos)
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date created:1863
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materials:Pen and brown ink and watercolour over pencil
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measurements:27.62 x 49.21 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 5551.27
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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...
