Figures at Chania, Crete
Figures at Chania, Crete
Edward Lear (1812-1888)
Figures at Chania, Crete
Inscribed lower left: Kanea and inscribed with other notes
Pen and brown ink and watercolour over traces of pencil
5.2 by 17.5cm., 2 by 6 ¾ inches
Lear left Corfu in March 1864 and travelled via Athens to Crete arriving at the port of Kanea or Chania, as it is known today, in mid April. He spent the rest of April and most of May on Crete. This is probably a sketch taken in the bazaar at Chania:
`Everything struck him as picturesque, the port, the bazaars, the black men and women, the great galley arches of the Venetian sheds, all the Cretans.....' (Peter Levi, Edward Lear - a Biography, 1995, p.199)