A View of Adam’s Peak, Ceylon

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, Adam's Peak

Subjects

topography, landscape C19th, flower, tree, palm, mountain, river, jungle, forest

Materials & Techniques

canvas, oil, oil painting

Artist

Edward Lear (1812 - 1888)

Title

A View of Adam’s Peak, Ceylon

Date

1882

Medium

Oil on canvas

Acquisition

Purchased from Gooden & Fox, December 1953

Inscription

bl: monogram verso on top stretcher bar: R[iver?] Scenery, Ceylon Edward Lear 1882 in pencil, lower stretcher bar: facing door middle top

Provenance

Collection of ‘Mrs Saville’; from whom purchased by Gooden & Fox, London, in September 1953; from whom purchased by the Ministry of Works in December 1953

GAC number

2513