The Pass of Tempe, Thessaly, Greece
The Pass of Tempe, Thessaly, Greece
Pass of Tempe, Thessaly, GreeceSigned with artist's monogram, lower right and inscribed Tempe and further indistinctly inscribed in Greek. Further inscribed in ink on the mount: The long divine Peneian Pass,-/To E. L on his travels in Greece.) Further inscribed Pass of Tempe/Thessaly./Greece. and numbered 108. Grey wash with touches of scratching out9.7 by 14.4 cm; 3 ¾ by 5 ¾ in.Provenance: The Tennyson Family;Tennyson Research Centre, Lincoln until 1980;With Thos. Agnew & Sons (no. 47319);Private CollectionLiterature: Ruth Pitman, Edward Lear's Tennyson, 1988, pp. 145-6, ill. p. 145 Lear had long been an admirer of the work of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892). Following an introduction by their mutual friend Franklin Lushington in 1850 (whose brother was married to Tennyson's sister Cecilia), Lear sent the Tennysons a belated wedding present of his illustrated Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania &c. In response, a little later in 1853, Tennyson wrote a poem entitled To E.L. on his travels in Greece. Their admiration for each other's work developed into friendship (which at times proved tempestuous) and a regular correspondence. Lear was always slightly in awe of the Poet Laureate and sometimes found him a daunting character, however, his admiration for the man as a poet remained undiminished. Lear was a regular visitor to Farringford, the Tennyson's family home on the Isle of Wight and became especially close to Tennyson's wife, Emily who he described 'as 10000 angels boiled down - an essence of goodness' (Lear, Edward, 1812-1888. Diary: autograph manuscript, 1872., 1872.. Edward Lear diaries, MS Eng 797.3, (15), and their sons, Hallam and Lionel. Emily proved a great source of comfort and advice to Lear, throughout his later years, when he struggled emotionally, physically and financially. When Lear moved to San Remo in the 1870s, he named his house Villa Tennyson. In 1852, whilst staying with Holman Hunt at Clive Vale Farm, Lear's long-held ambition of producing illustrations for some of Tennyson's poems began to take form. He decided that was to create a series of landscapes, intended as a tribute to the poet and his keen perception of landscape and to use the poem 'To EL.' as the centrepiece. His intention was to take a line, or lines, from a poem and to illustrate them with landscapes from his various journeys that he felt related directly to those lines, rather than the poem as a whole. Lear wrote to Emily in October 1852, setting out his ideas and he worked at the project on and off from then onwards. The scheme evolved through a mixture of a small group of oils, accompanied by a larger group of watercolours, through experimenting with different formats and sizes, until by the last few years of his life, he settled on working in monochrome. He worked up groups of drawings in both brown ink and wash, and grey wash, as well as grey wash with brown ink or pencil or black highlights. Over the decades, these works became, deeply personal to the artist, allowing him to give full reign to his striving for 'poetical topography… and finally, to his idea of a record of his own artistic endeavour' (R. Pitman, Edward Lear's Tennyson, 1988, p. 28). However, it was not until after his death that 36 of his proposed works were reproduced in a special edition of Tennyson's poetry published in 1889 in honour of Lear. The present drawings relate to Tennyson's To E.L. on his travels in Greece, published 1853. The Tempe Pass in northern Thessaly, was of strategic importance, being one of the key routes from Larissa, through the mountains to the Aegean. The valley itself is about 10km long and in places the pass is only 25m wide, with cliffs towering almost 500m in places. The River Pineois flows through the valley floor. Ruth Pitman describes the Pass of Tempe as a 'particularly successful drawing' (ibid. p. 142) and interestingly despite the natural upright nature of the deep gorge, Lear has chosen to depict a view looking across the gorge. Lear had visited on at least two occasions, in 1849 when the poor weather made the trip hard work and again in 1856. He described his first visit to the 'narrow pass…although extremely beautiful, on account of the precipitous rocks on each side, the Peneus flowing deep in the midst, between the richest overhanging plane woods, still its character is distinctly that of a ravine or gorge… The cliffs themselves are very loft and beautifully hung with creepers and other foliage… There is infinite beauty and magnificence in its scenery, and fine compositions might be made, had an artist time to wander amount he great plane-trees on the border of the stream.' (Edward Lear, Journals of a landscape Painter in Albania &c., 1851, p. 409).){kind=link}
Edward Lear (1812-1888)
Pass of Tempe, Thessaly, Greece
Signed with artist's monogram, lower right and inscribed Tempe and further indistinctly inscribed in Greek. Further inscribed in ink on the mount: The long divine Peneian Pass,-/To E. L on his travels in Greece.) Further inscribed Pass of Tempe/Thessaly./Greece. and numbered 108.
Grey wash with touches of scratching out
9.7 by 14.4 cm; 3 ¾ by 5 ¾ in.
Provenance:
The Tennyson Family;
Tennyson Research Centre, Lincoln until 1980;
With Thos. Agnew & Sons (no. 47319);
Private Collection
Literature:
Ruth Pitman, Edward Lear's Tennyson, 1988, pp. 145-6, ill. p. 145
Lear had long been an admirer of the work of Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892). Following an introduction by their mutual friend Franklin Lushington in 1850 (whose brother was married to Tennyson's sister Cecilia), Lear sent the Tennysons a belated wedding present of his illustrated Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania &c. In response, a little later in 1853, Tennyson wrote a poem entitled To E.L. on his travels in Greece. Their admiration for each other's work developed into friendship (which at times proved tempestuous) and a regular correspondence. Lear was always slightly in awe of the Poet Laureate and sometimes found him a daunting character, however, his admiration for the man as a poet remained undiminished.
Lear was a regular visitor to Farringford, the Tennyson's family home on the Isle of Wight and became especially close to Tennyson's wife, Emily who he described 'as 10000 angels boiled down - an essence of goodness' (Lear, Edward, 1812-1888. Diary: autograph manuscript, 1872., 1872.. Edward Lear diaries, MS Eng 797.3, (15), and their sons, Hallam and Lionel. Emily proved a great source of comfort and advice to Lear, throughout his later years, when he struggled emotionally, physically and financially. When Lear moved to San Remo in the 1870s, he named his house Villa Tennyson.
In 1852, whilst staying with Holman Hunt at Clive Vale Farm, Lear's long-held ambition of producing illustrations for some of Tennyson's poems began to take form. He decided that was to create a series of landscapes, intended as a tribute to the poet and his keen perception of landscape and to use the poem 'To EL.' as the centrepiece. His intention was to take a line, or lines, from a poem and to illustrate them with landscapes from his various journeys that he felt related directly to those lines, rather than the poem as a whole.
Lear wrote to Emily in October 1852, setting out his ideas and he worked at the project on and off from then onwards. The scheme evolved through a mixture of a small group of oils, accompanied by a larger group of watercolours, through experimenting with different formats and sizes, until by the last few years of his life, he settled on working in monochrome. He worked up groups of drawings in both brown ink and wash, and grey wash, as well as grey wash with brown ink or pencil or black highlights. Over the decades, these works became, deeply personal to the artist, allowing him to give full reign to his striving for 'poetical topography… and finally, to his idea of a record of his own artistic endeavour' (R. Pitman, Edward Lear's Tennyson, 1988, p. 28). However, it was not until after his death that 36 of his proposed works were reproduced in a special edition of Tennyson's poetry published in 1889 in honour of Lear. The present drawings relate to Tennyson's To E.L. on his travels in Greece, published 1853.
The Tempe Pass in northern Thessaly, was of strategic importance, being one of the key routes from Larissa, through the mountains to the Aegean. The valley itself is about 10km long and in places the pass is only 25m wide, with cliffs towering almost 500m in places. The River Pineois flows through the valley floor.
Ruth Pitman describes the Pass of Tempe as a 'particularly successful drawing' (ibid. p. 142) and interestingly despite the natural upright nature of the deep gorge, Lear has chosen to depict a view looking across the gorge. Lear had visited on at least two occasions, in 1849 when the poor weather made the trip hard work and again in 1856. He described his first visit to the 'narrow pass…although extremely beautiful, on account of the precipitous rocks on each side, the Peneus flowing deep in the midst, between the richest overhanging plane woods, still its character is distinctly that of a ravine or gorge… The cliffs themselves are very loft and beautifully hung with creepers and other foliage… There is infinite beauty and magnificence in its scenery, and fine compositions might be made, had an artist time to wander amount he great plane-trees on the border of the stream.' (Edward Lear, Journals of a landscape Painter in Albania &c., 1851, p. 409).