Beschreibung:

Lear (Edward, 1812-1888). San Buci, near Rome, Italy, 1840, pencil on grey-brown paper, laid onto card, title and date '9 July 1840' to lower right in pencil, pencil note to lower left 'Ivy', small loss at left lower corner, slight overall toning, sheet size 27.2 x 40 cm (10 6/8 x 15 3/4 ins), framed and glazed (45 x 56 cm) (Quantity: 1) Provenance: Collection of Michael and Megan Dawson. Having first established Greater London Arts in 1967, funded to promote culture in the London boroughs, Michael Dawson (1932-2022) became director in 1969 of the Yorkshire Arts Association. While running the YAA under the auspices of the Arts Council, Michael also founded the Ilkley Literature Festival, where he succeeded over the ensuing years in drawing in writers of international reputation, including W. H. Auden, Ted Hughes, Phyllis Bentley, Philip Larkin, Malcolm Bradbury, Ian McEwan, and Alan Bennett. Edward Lear travelled throughout Italy, staying primarily in Rome, for a period of over four years between 1837 and 1841. During this time he built up a collection of landscape sketches which he used in the first and largest of his published travel books, Views of Rome and its Environs published in 1841 by Thomas M'Lean.