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Source Description
Most famous for humorous poems such as "The Owl and the Pussycat," Lear was also a painter and illustrator who wittily described himself as "Greek Topographical Painter par excellence." As a young artist, he traveled to Rome and remained abroad for the majority of his life. He undertook walking tours in Italy, Greece, Switzerland, and France, and sketched assiduously. Upon finding what he deemed a good subject, Lear observed the scenery through a monocle and then rapidly sketched the details of the view in graphite, usually recording the precise location and date. Later, he worked up the drawing in ink and laid in color washes. This drawing records a view of Lake Maggiore in Italy.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
147586
label
Isola Bella, Lago Maggiore
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
147586
contentType
drawing
title
Isola Bella, Lago Maggiore
description
Most famous for humorous poems such as "The Owl and the Pussycat," Lear was also a painter and illustrator who wittily described himself as "Greek Topographical Painter par excellence." As a young artist, he traveled to Rome and remained abroad for the majority of his life. He undertook walking tours in Italy, Greece, Switzerland, and France, and sketched assiduously. Upon finding what he deemed a good subject, Lear observed the scenery through a monocle and then rapidly sketched the details of the view in graphite, usually recording the precise location and date. Later, he worked up the drawing in ink and laid in color washes. This drawing records a view of Lake Maggiore in Italy.
date
1839
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q79927003
creators
1319
genreSpecific
Drawing
imageCount
1
source
import
cul
England, 19th century
accession
1973.83
Source extras
tec
graphite heightened with white
tombstone
Isola Bella, Lago Maggiore, 1839. Edward Lear (British, 1812–1888). Graphite heightened with white. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Victor Thaw, 1973.83
collection
DR - British
citations
citation
“The Year in Review for 1973.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 61, no. 2 (February 1974): 31–78.
page_number
Reproduced: p. 49; Mentioned: p. 76, no. 96
creditline
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene Victor Thaw
updatedAt
2026-05-29 07:34:20.638000
sourceId
147586
dept
Drawings
coll
DR - British
med
graphite heightened with white
creatorTags
male
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
6fca6ffd52ff1f1e