Edward Lear

Corfu, a British colony from 1815 to 1863, served as Lear’s base for several years beginning in 1855, when his close friend Frederick Lushington served there as judge of the supreme court of the Ionian Islands. Although Lear found the beauty of the island astonishing, he disliked the large British presence there, calling it, in a letter to his sister, a “disorganised fiddlefaddle Poodly-pumpkin place.” This image of Paleocastritza, meaning “old castle,” typifies the complicated linear patterns frequently found in Lear’s studies, with multiple lines, cross-hatching, and shadow laid in with wash.