Venosa

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Venosa

Artist Edward Lear (British, 1812-1888)

Place of OriginEngland

Date1852

DimensionsH: 19 3/4 in. (50.2 cm); W: 32 3/8 in. (82.2 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1969.340

Not on View

Label TextThough a successful author of whimsical books like A Book of Nonsense (1846) and composer of humorous songs like “The Owl and the Pussycat,” Edward Lear was a painter by profession. Self-taught, he specialized in landscapes (though he was also a celebrated bird illustrator) and particularly enjoyed portraying views that were not commonly painted by others. The southern Italian city of Venosa, once an ancient Roman garrison town, was a bit off the beaten path in the 1800s, despite its picturesque medieval castle. Lear painted Venosa under the tutelage of Pre-Raphaelite artist William Holman Hunt. Though 15 years Hunt’s senior, Lear sought the younger artist’s advice on the best way to paint oil paintings from the sketches he had made some years earlier in Italy. Hunt suggested the Pre-Raphaelite method of painting out-of-doors, using elements of the English countryside as substitutes for Italy. He also gave tips on Pre-Raphaelite techniques for color and conveying effects of light. Lear was pleased with the results, writing to Hunt that Venosa had turned out “wonderfully true and brilliant.”Published References"Treasures for Toledo," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 12, no. 4, Winter 1969.

"La Chronique des Arts," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, vol. 75, no. 1213, Feb. 1970, repr. p. 80, no. 362.

"Accessions," Art Quarterly, vol. 33, no. 1, Spring 1970, p. 85, repr. p. 90.

Staley, Allen, The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape, Oxford, 1973, p. 153, pl. 84b.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 94, pl. 335.

Staley, Allen, The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape, 2nd Ed., New Haven, 2001, p. 211, fig. 172 (col.).