Lear, Edward (1812 – 1888) – Italy; ‘Coast between Amalfi and Positano’.

Lear's first trip to Italy began in July 1837, but it was not until May 1838 that he travelled South. He settled for the Summer at Capo di Cava from where he could take longs walks along the cliff road to Amalfi. Years later, while in Corfu, he reminisced... 'There is every-where a flood of gold & green & blue. This & the breeze [...] remind me of days in many lands before [...] On Swiss lakes, & Como Hills in 1837 - In the first years of Roman and Amalfi life /38, /39 - I do not suppose that kind of happiness can ever come back [...]' (Vivien Noakes, Edward Lear, 1968, p.96). This drawing would have been made after his return to Rome, during the Winter of 1839. Another version is in the British Museum (BM1892,1119.10).