Edward Lear

The Rev. Percy Mordaunt Barnard (1868-1941) and his wife Alice, née Barnand,

Thence by descent to their daughter, Nea Morin (1905-1986),

Thence by descent to the present owners

In this on-the-spot drawing, Lear looks over a thick woodland of maritime pine and olive, past the habour of St Jean de Cap Ferrat and then on - to the end of the peninsular - where the sky-line is punctuated by the distinctive chapel and tower of the Saint Hospice.

Over the winter of 1864-5, Lear was on the south coast of France and he spent much time recording its ‘strangely wild and magnificent’ scenery.¹ The present drawing was made on the 5^th February 1865 and although seemingly a clear day, he makes a point of noting, in the bottom right of the composition, that there was a ‘high wind’.

1.   Diary, 6. xii. p. 64