Bassae. Courtesy of The Trustees of the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery (The Higgins, Bedford)

Edward Lear visited Greece many times to travel and draw the landscape. His first visit after spending several years in Italy was in 1848 when he travelled in central Greece but he became ill and had to shorten his journey. A separate website (see Links) illustrates this.

In spring 1849 he returned to Greece with a travel companion Franklin Lushington, a younger man who became a great friend and later his executor.  They toured much of the Peloponnese, and then from Athens visited the island of Aegina and the temple at Sounion.  Finally as part of their over six week journey they headed west above the Gulf of Corinth, under Mount Parnassus and reaching Delphi (see map).

Our current knowledge of these travels is greatly assisted by the recent discovery of a complete list of Lear's drawings of the journey in his own hand, the existence of a transcript of much of his journal of the time, not previously published in full, and an exceptionally high proportion of the drawings he made now in the hands of American and Greek institutions and available for study.

Once Lushington and Lear had parted in mid April, Lear was undecided what to do next but decided to explore the west coast of Greece (Epirus, mostly part of Albania) up to Joannina and then cross the country, in order to see parts he had missed on his previous year's travels.  A list of the drawings in his own hand made on this extension to his journey exists and is used under 'Drawings in Detail' as are images of most of the works he made. Many of the drawings were included in 'Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania, etc' which Lear published in 1851.

​July 2024