Lot 1836
ATTRIBUTED TO EDWARD LEAR (1812-1888)
JERUSALEM FROM THE MOUNT OF OLIVES
Watercolour and pencil, heightened with white and scratching out
27.5 x 43cm.
Provenance: Collection of Tamar and Teddy Kollek, Mayor of Jerusalem
Exhibited: possibly Jerusalem, The Israel Museum, no date
* In 1858, Lear was commissioned by Lady Waldegrave to paint a view of Jerusalem at sunset. Lear undertook the appointment as an opportunity to tour the outskirts of the city and he hoped that he had found the location that "Christ must have been on when he `saw the city'". A number of variations by Lear survive but this composition relates closely to Lear's watercolour in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem (45 x 75cm.) and an oil on canvas with a different foreground, 40 x 60cm, was sold at Christies New York, January 26th 2011, lot 61 (
818,500).
