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Edward Lear

“The tree, stands in the sun, and shadows all beneath,” Calcutta, India

Maker

Edward Lear (English, 1812-1888)

Title

drawing

Year

after 1878

Medium

  • Lithograph with pen and brown ink and wash,
  • and graphite on wove paper

Materials/Techniques

Techniques

  • Lithograph with pen and brown ink and wash,
  • and graphite on wove paper

Materials

wash technique, ink

Dimensions

26 x 52.4 cm (10 1/4 x 20 5/8 inches)

Signature / Inscription / Marks

18./The tree, stands in the sun, and shadows all beneath/Calcutta (India)

Credit / Object Number

Credit

Anonymous gift

Object Number

71.153.56

Type

  • Drawings and Watercolors

Publications

  • Books

Selection II: British Watercolors and Drawings from the Museum's Collection

  • Books

How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear: Watercolors by Edward Lear from Rhode Island Collections

Exhibition History

“Grisogorious Places”
Edward Lear’s Travels
Sep 14, 2012 – May 19, 2013

Label copy

The most important project of Lear’s later years was an ambitious scheme to illustrate the work of his friend, the poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-92). Lear meant the project as both an act of homage and a summary of his own life’s work. It was never published as he intended, although Lear completed around 300 drawings, matching scenes from his tens of thousands of travel sketches to Tennyson’s verse. This scene of Calcutta, derived from Lear’s extended trip to India in 1873-74, illustrates a line from “Love and Death,” published in 1830:

Death, walking all alone beneath a yew,

And talking to himself, first met his sight:

“You must begone,” said Death, “these walks are mine.”

Love wept and spread his sheeny vans for flight;

Yet ere he parted said, ‘This hour is thine:

Thou art the shadow of life, and as the tree

Stands in the sun and shadows all beneath,

So in the light of great eternity

Life eminent creates the shade of death;

The shadow passeth when the tree shall fall,

But I shall reign for ever over all.

Selection II
British Watercolors and Drawings from the Museum's Collection
Apr 13, 1972 – May 14, 1972

Image use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use.

Public Domain This object is in the Public Domain and available under a CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication

Tombstone

Edward Lear (English, 1812-1888)
drawing, after 1878
Lithograph with pen and brown ink and wash, and graphite on wove paper
26 x 52.4 cm (10 1/4 x 20 5/8 inches)
Anonymous gift 71.153.56

To request new photography, please send an email to imagerequest@risd.edu and include your name and the object's accession number.

Feedback

We view our online collection as a living documents, and our records are frequently revised and enhanced. If you have additional information or have spotted an error, please send feedback to curatorial@risd.edu.

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