Edward Lear, Santa Maura (1863)

Posted on January 18, 2026 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear, Santa Maura.
Inscribed, titled and dated ’20th April 1863′. Watercolour over pen and ink. 15 x 25 cm. (6 x 10 in.)

Provenance
With John Spink, London

Invaluable.

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Edward Lear, Trees at Tivoli

Posted on January 16, 2026 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear (British, 1812-1888) Trees at Tivoli.
Pencil and stump work on buff paper. 24 x 35 cm. (9 1/2 x 13 3/4 in.)

Provenance
Private Collection, London

Invaluable.

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Edward Lear, Simplon (1837)

Posted on January 12, 2026 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear (British, 1812-1888) The Village of Simpion, Switzerland.
Inscribed ‘…mplon/ Sept. 1837’ and inscribed ‘H’ (lower right). Pencil, heightened white on grey paper. 32.4 x 22.6 cm. (12 3/4 x 8 3/4 in.)

Provenance
With Guy Peppiatt Fine Art Ltd, Duke Street, London, according to label attached verso.

Invaluable.

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Edward Lear, Ponte Nomentano near Rome (1844)

Posted on January 10, 2026 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear, Ponte Nomentano near Rome, May 17th 1844.
Pen and brown ink, signed and dated May 17th 1844 in pencil lower right, titled in pencil lower left, 15.5 x 25cm.

Provenance
Michael Spratt Gallery, Guildford, Surrey

The Saleroom.

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Edward Lear, Villa Castellane, Varese (1884)

Posted on January 8, 2026 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear, Villa Castellane, Varese.
Watercolour on paper – 26 x 51.5cm, 42.5 x 68cm framed. Monogrammed and dated 1884 lower right, titled lower left. With Peter Nahum label verso, with Peter Nahum receipt.

The Saleroom.

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There Was an Old Man of Berlin…

Posted on January 4, 2026 by Marco Graziosi

A few weeks ago Mr Nicholas Grindell contacted me about a chapbook he had published a few years back. It consists of a series of 108 limericks all beginning “There was an Old Man of Berlin” and is intended a tribute both to Edward Lear and the city Mr Grindell has been living in for over thirty years.

Unsurprisingly the title of the book is There Was an Old Man of Berlin and can be purchased from this page.

In the same e-mail Mr Grindell mentions something I had not noticed before: Lear’s own Man of Berlin

anticipates a scene from Wilhelm Busch’s Max und Moritz (1865), in which the two rascals end up in an oven, though this is not (yet) fatal to them:

The second picture in Busch’s story corresponds to the fate of Lear’s Old Man of Peru:

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The Evolution of the Book of Nonsense

Posted on December 16, 2025 by Marco Graziosi

My essay on the early editions of Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense has now been published and is available on Project Muse:

Graziosi, Marco. “The Evolution of Edward Lear’s A Book of Nonsense: The Making of the 1846, 1855, and 1861 Editions.” Book History, vol. 28 no. 2, 2025, p. 282-315. Project MUSE, https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/bh.2025.a976869.

Abstract
Edward Lear’s A Book of Nonsense is a foundational work in modern children’s literature. This essay traces its development from early manuscript limericks to the first two-volume edition of 1846 and then examines the 1855 one-volume edition, identifying four distinct states and reconstructing its complex production history. A census of known variants of this second edition is included in an Appendix. The 1861 edition’s added limericks are discussed, and finally Lear’s evolving approach to book design is compared with Lewis Carroll’s attention to the smallest details of his publications. The evolution of the Book of Nonsense is shown to have provided a model for Carroll’s work and that of the authors of the “golden age of children’s literature.”

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Edward Lear, View of Zagori

Posted on December 1, 2025 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear, View of Zagori.
Pencil and watercolour, signed lower right, 12 x 18cm.

Provenance
Gallery label verso for Mark Fisher of London SW12 and with original purchase receipt for Mark Fisher Fine Art of SW12, January 1992 for £4,500

The Saleroom.

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Edward Lear, Villa Falconieri, Frascati

Posted on November 29, 2025 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear, Villa Falconieri, Frascati.
Pencil on paper heightened with white chalk. Inscribed Villa Falconieri from Mondrajon/Frascati (lower left). 7 1/2 x 14 1/4 in.

Provenance
Sold: Christie’s East, New York, May 20, 1996, Lot 14
Private Collection, New Jersey

Invaluable.

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Edward Lear, Genazzano (1840)

Posted on November 27, 2025 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear, The castle at Genazzano, south-east of Tivoli, Italy.
Extensively inscribed with colour annotations; titled and dated ‘Gennazzano. Oct. 09. 1840.’ lower right. Pencil. 21.5 x 42cm.

Provenance
Albany Gallery, London

Although the gallery label verso suggests a date of 1860, the date is more likely to read 1840, when Lear is recorded as being in Italy around Tivoli and Rome.

[On 9 October 1860 Lear was in London.]

The Saleroom.

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