Edward Lear

Lear made this sketch on his third trip to the Mediterranean island of Malta, during a lonely winter spent without companionship. Garf H´ásan (or Ghar Hasan ) refers to a large cave, just out of view in the picture, tied to a legend about a young man named Hasan who once hid there. Unlike Lear’s more typically distant views, the sketch features a massive, elongated cliff at close range, demarcated by quick, long pen strokes against the still water. Lear used the same blue for the water as for the shadows that cover the lower and distant reaches of the rocks.

Lear may be best known today for his nonsense verses, but he was also an inspired and prolific landscape artist who even gave drawing lessons to Britain’s Queen Victoria. He traveled extensively, recording thousands of views, 52 of which are in the Museum’s collection. His work continued the 18th-century topographic practice of sketching on site (at the lower right he noted that it was drawn in an hour, “10-11 am 30 Jany 1866”) and coloring the work in pale washes in the studio according to notations made in the drawing. He also liked to finish the work by “penning out” and even reinforced his annotations in pen and ink using them as integral elements of a finished composition.