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Edward Lear

“The tree, stands in the sun, and shadows all beneath,” Calcutta, India, after 1878

Description

Maker

  • Edward Lear, 1812-1888, English

Title

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

Year

after 1878

Medium

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

Materials/Techniques

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)

Type

  • Works on Paper,
  • Drawings and Watercolors

Credit

Anonymous gift

Object Number

71.153.56

Projects & Publications

Publications

How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear

Watercolors by Edward Lear from Rhode Island Collections

Selection II

British Watercolors and Drawings from the Museum's Collection

Exhibition History

Exhibition History

“Grisogorious Places”

September 14, 2012 - May 19, 2013

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

April 13 - May 14, 1972

Use

The images on this website can enable discovery and collaboration and support new scholarship, and we encourage their use. This object is in the public domain (CC0 1.0). This object is “The tree, stands in the sun, and shadows all beneath,” Calcutta, India with the accession number of 71.153.56. To request high-resolution files or 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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