Maharakka

Location

Country: Egypt
City: Cairo
Place: British Embassy

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 Nile, North Africa, Egypt, Temple of Maharakka

Subjects

topography, landscape C19th, townscape/cityscape, tree, palm, camel, river, hill, desert, archaeological site, temple (religious building), ruin, column

Materials & Techniques

paper (as artists material), watercolour (as artists materials), watercolour (as object name)

Artist

Edward Lear (1812 - 1888)

Title

Maharakka

Date

14 February 1867

Medium

Watercolour on paper

Dimensions

height: 18.00 cm, width: 51.50 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Agnew's, June 1955

Inscription

bottom left: (ink) Mahárakka. / 10. AM. Feb y 14. 1867 [above same in pencil] [bottom right] (469)

GAC number

3205