Edward Lear

(British, 1812-1888)

Coast of Malabar

Footnotes

Painted in 1880 (according to an inscription on the frame).

Provenance
The Honourable Eustace Henry Dawnay, 8 Belgrave Square, London.
Thence by family descent to the present owner.
Private collection, UK.

An inveterate traveller, Edward Lear was in his sixties when Lord Northbrook (at the time Viceroy of India), persuaded the artist to undertake an all-expenses paid trip to India and Ceylon. Initially reluctant to leave his new home in San Remo, Lear was flooded with so many requests for depictions of India that he was finally persuaded to undertake one last voyage.

After an initial attempt that got him only as far as Suez, Lear eventually reached Bombay in November 1873, noting his 'violent and amazing delight at the wonderful variety of life and dress' he encountered.¹ Lear travelled extensively throughout the country, visiting Lucknow, Benares, Agra, Gwalior, Delhi, Simla, Poonah, Hyderabad and the Himalayas. He visited Mahee on the Malabar coast in November 1874 (see for example View of Mahee, India, Christie's, London, 10 December 2008, lot 51) noting 'the view there is a stunner!!! As a river scene can any other equal it'.²

Lear produced a vast quantity of sketches while in India -at least 1500, many now in the collection of the Houghton Library at Harvard University- and worked some of these into oil paintings on commission (see for example View of Gwalior, India, 1880, Christie's, New York, 25 January, 2012, lot 56; this work, like the present lot, has the date of 1880 on the frame, suggesting the date of execution).

The present work was in the collection of Eustace Henry Dawnay (1850 - 1928), who was a lieutenant in the Coldstream Guards and fought in The Egyptian Campaign of 1882. The work hung at West Heslerton Hall, which was the Dawnay home for over 150 years.

¹Edward Lear, Indian Journal.
²Ibid.