Edward Lear in Liguria…and Nottinghamshire…
- marysia
- Apr 29
- 10 min read
Updated: May 1
by Ross Balzaretti
Nottingham 1st May 2026
Edward Lear (1812-1888) is best known today for his poem ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’, voted the most popular childhood poem in Britain in 2014. His fame in this field has continued from the 1840s to the present day. A typical verse is the following, first published in 1870:.
There was an Old Person of Sestri,
Who sate himself down in the vestry;
When they said “You are wrong!”
He merely said “Bong!”
That repulsive Old Person of Sestri.
While not perhaps one of his very best, this verse is interesting because the Sestri where the old person sat down is Sestri Levante, on the Italian Riviera (Riviera di Levante), in eastern Liguria, a place where Lear went for the first time in May 1860 on a sketching trip which began in La Spezia and ended in Rapallo. This visit is the main topic of this blog.
Although Lear is renowned as an author — of letters and fascinating unpublished journals — he regarded himself as an artist first and a writer second. His huge artistic output, numbering around 10,000 surviving sketches in various media and many oils, has only recently been taken seriously, notably by Jenny Uglow in an outstanding biography. Lear’s life was spent on the move, sketching and painting throughout Europe and well beyond. His last years, however, were more settled in his villas in San Remo on the western Ligurian riviera (Riviera di Ponente).
It was through teaching about travel, tourism and landscape history at the University of Nottingham that I became interested in Lear, rather than by reading his verse, perhaps a more normal route into his life and work. Lear appeared in Rediscovering Lost Landscapes, a book I co-authored with Pietro Piana and Charles Watkins which was published in 2021. We analysed hundreds of images produced by both professional and amateur artists to investigate the histories of current landscapes in northwestern Italy, including those of the Liguria region, showing how much has changed since Lear’s day but also what has not changed so much.
Lear in Nottinghamshire
While preparing this blog I discovered that Lear had visited north Nottinghamshire just before and again just after his first visit to Liguria in May 1860. That trip was part of a pattern he had developed of spending the winters in warmer climes because his health was often poor, usually Italy at this period, and the summers in Britain, when he mostly stayed with friends and acquaintances trying to sell his work, ‘on a marketing round of his friends and patrons’, as one biographer puts it.
This portrait photograph of Lear was taken in 1866. Other portraits taken around this time reveal more of his artistic, even bohemian, nature, confirming what his nonsense suggests; that Lear could be eccentric.
We know about his visits to Nottinghamshire from Lear’s detailed diaries kept throughout his life. In late November 1859 he was staying with the Chaworth-Musters family, probably at Annesley Hall (now derelict). They wanted to buy one of his large oil paintings, the ‘Bassae’ (full title ‘The Temple of Apollo at Bassae’, painted c.1854-55), but, as it had already been purchased for the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, they settled for seven of Lear’s other drawings of sites from the Holy Land for 21 guineas each, a large sum at that time. Lear was astonished when Mrs Chaworth Musters showed him the “the door, with pistol shots of Lord B. still stands” (19 November 1859). On 21 November Lear moved on to stay with his friend Emma Bethell at Woodborough Hall: ‘at 2 or 3 came away from Annesley ― having made one of the “newest” & pleasantest visits. ― They sent me in a “break” ― well wrapped up ―: fog thick & cold. Reached Woodborough before 4.’ Emma was married to Mansfield Parkyns, a well-known explorer of eastern Africa whom Lear admired. This seems to have been more of a social visit than a sales opportunity.
Lear stayed again with the Musters at the same time the following year. Then he had recently returned from his trip to eastern Liguria having visited both Lerici and Genoa, well-known haunts of Lord Byron. Lear was understandably very excited to visit Newstead Abbey, Byron’s ancestral home. His diary entry for 3 November conveys his enthusiasm:
‘Soon after at 2 Mrs. C.M. drove me with the ponies ― just as last year ― only in finer weather ― thro’ Linby & Papplewyck ((Papplewick.)) ― (Walters away,) & the rough green lanes, to Newstead. To day it was most beautiful. We walked ˇ[half] round the water ― & I drew. Then the house ―: the lower monked rooms: the Cloisters, the gardens, so beautiful! The terraces! the close alleys & ponds: the balustrades & the Abbey arches ― the Dogs tomb. ― Inside, the tapestry & rooms, & endless care of Col. Wildman: the room of Byron ― just as it was: the great drawing room ― & the dining room: the skull ― &c. &c. All so sad & wild & strange, remembering too as I did all my early thought & reading ― & that I had thought also at Janina & Greece ― & Spezzia. ― A strange dream…. So I came away ― & I dare say Mrs. C.M. wondered at my interest ― for indeed they consider ― at least the Musters do ― that Lord B.’s verses & admiration of their grandmother was a liberty’.
Byron had pursued his neighbour Mary Chaworth when both were young to her and her parents’ irritation.
12-23 May 1860
Late in 1859, Lear had travelled back to Rome arriving on New Year’s Day 1860. He had spent much of the previous twenty years in the city, painting and selling his work. He also produced the first of his illustrated travel books there: Views in Rome and its Environs; Drawn from Nature and on Stone (1841). Rome was a volatile place at this period due to the wars of independence against Austria and as a result a disconsolate Lear left the city in May and travelled to Genoa with the intention of sketching the Italian Riviera for the first time.
At La Spezia, he met up with his Greek-speaking Albanian manservant Giorgio Kokali and together they travelled west via Sestri Levante to Zoagli and Rapallo. They walked most of the way on the old coast road and the numerous mule tracks which led into the countryside. There was no railway here until 1874, after which these places were never the same, hosting ever larger numbers of Italian and foreign tourists. Lear’s sketches are lost landscapes, captured shortly before these changes.
Lear proceeded to sketch continuously for two weeks with the intention to produce another travel book but it never appeared. His intention meant that his diary for this period was particularly detailed and now helps us interpret the surviving images. He made at least forty three sketches on this trip. There is not space to discuss them all here but most can be viewed online (see further reading), as a significant number of these sketches have survived in public collections. Others may still be in private hands.
On May 14 Lear was in the town of La Spezia where he wrote in his diary:
X5 Alack! ― Sultry & dim morning ― sunny. ― Did not like to tempt the silver wave, as the clouds were heavy. Wandered till 8, having risen at 6½. ― Breakfast. Saw a Genoa paper, whereby one is told that επαναζασις των Σικιλιων1 (‘the rebirth of the Sicilians’) is not snuffed out. ― Afterwards drew on the beach till 11 with G… and began another view of Spezia, very beautiful.
This seems to be this view of the town, in which he has captured the very specific shade of blue which these hills take on at some times of day.
Edward Lear, ‘Spezia 14 May 1860’, watercolour and sepia ink over graphite on cream paper. 17 x 50.3 cm.
Houghton Library, Harvard University. Public domain.
The reference ‘X5 Alack’ refers to five epileptic fits he suffered the night before. Lear used a ‘X’ to indicate these as he was secretive about these episodes, as epilepsy was not well understood at that time and regarded as shameful. In his newspaper Lear had read a significant event in the process of Italian unification which had happened only a few days before when Giuseppe Garibaldi had proclaimed himself ruler of the Sicilians in the name of the Savoy king.
Having spent three days drawing around La Spezia, Lear went to Lerici, famous as the place Percy Shelley died and redolent of romantic associations, which included Shelley’s friend Byron. This image is described by Lear : ‘On the beach is the house of Byron and Shelley – sad looking: but the views are very glorious.’ They had arrived at 10 then walked back and ‘It was 3½ [i.e. 3.30 pm] before I had done the view above it’.
Photograph of Casa Magni, late 1890s, photographer unknown, from Guido Biagi,
The last days of Percy Bysshe Shelley (1898).
Five days later on 21 May Edward was in Sestri Levante, where he made six sketches in a single day, which have all survived in Harvard’s library. One is this lovely watercolour of the town’s famous Bay of Silence viewed from the east.
Edward Lear, ‘Sestri Levante, 21 May 1860’, watercolor, Chinese white and sepia ink over graphite on cream paper. 54.5 x 36.5 cm, Houghton Library, Harvard University. Public Domain.
The precision with which he has drawn the buildings is typical of his draftsmanship in the traditional British topographical style, which was rather outmoded by this period when ‘romantic’ views of landscape were more fashionable. Lear’s interest in exactitude is reinforced by annotations on the drawing which read: "gy" "w" "w" "green & okr" "red" "wall" "garden" "okr" "all pines" "all olives" "dark Ilex" "pale" "rox" "sea" "dark Ilex." (‘grey’, ‘ochre’, ‘rocks’). This was a longstanding habit of Lear’s which enabled him to work up the rapid field sketch into a more finished form, often back in Britain. The rapid sketches are now often preferred by modern collectors for their immediacy and charm. Comparison with a modern photograph of the same view shows that this part of Sestri at least has not changed too much since 1860 and emphasises the realism and accuracy of Lear’s image.
Another of these Sestri sketches shows a group of stone pines (the source of ‘pine nuts’) looking back toward La Spezia.
Edward Lear, ‘Sestri Levante 21 May 1860’, watercolour and sepia ink over graphite on white paper.32.7 x 49.5 cm.
Houghton Library, Harvard University. Public Domain.
Of this group of trees he wrote, ‘I do not remember having seen such a mass of beautiful pines together except perhaps at Thebes’, where he had been way back in 1848. Clearly, his visual memory was remarkable. His interest in pines was longstanding: there is another striking image of some at Frascati, near Rome, published in his 1841 book of Roman views.
Edward Lear, ‘Frascati from Villa Mondragone, belonging to the Borghese’, coloured lithograph is Views in Rome and its Environs Drawn from Nature and on Stone (London, 1841) Plate 7. Public Domain.
A particularly fine view of Chiavari was made on 22 May.
Edward Lear, ‘Chiavari 22 May 1860’, watercolour and sepia ink over graphite on white paper. 39.2 x 55 cm. Houghton Library, Harvard University. Public Domain.
Lear wrote that the ‘City [is] pleasant and sparkling – gay with color: hills round, beautifully dotted, villas, olive and pine. Mountains beyond. Stones by roadside, hurt my knee’. The latter was achieved by falling a long way down a slope, which could in fact have killed him! Typically, he brushed it off and carried on drawing.
Lear’s final years
Lear left eastern Liguria at the end of May 1860. Once back in England he commenced his usual round of trying to sell his work and, as we have seen, he returned to the Musters in Nottinghamshire. He returned briefly to Liguria in 1864 when he continued along the western Riviera beyond Genoa. It was then that he seems to have thought of settling permanently in the region and in the early 1870s, he finally plumped for San Remo where he built a house he named Villa Emily, after Tennyson’s wife, a close friend.
Within a few years a five storey hotel was built which blocked both his view of the Mediterranean and the light from his studio, so he had a new house built not far away, this time called the Villa Tennyson. There Lear spent his last years, still travelling in Italy and beyond as far as India, sketching, painting, gardening and receiving a few human visitors. His main companion in these lonely years was his cat Foss and was bereft when Foss died late in 1887. Lear died on 29 January the following year and his grave is still to be found in the English cemetery in San Remo, near that of Foss and his other faithful servants, a sad reminder of a great author and artist whose artistic work is still insufficiently known.
Edward Lear Aged 73 and a half and His Cat Foss, Aged 16, Lithograph by Edward Lear, 1885. Public domain.
Thanks
I am very grateful to the Houghton Library, Harvard University for permission to reproduce Lear’s drawings and extracts from his diaries.
Further reading:
Matthew Bevis, Edward Lear: Moment to Moment (2022), catalogue of an exhibition held at Birmingham’s Ikon Gallery.
Pietro Piana, Charles Watkins and Ross Balzaretti, Rediscovering Lost Landscapes. Topographical Art in north-west Italy, 1800-1920 (Boydell, 2021).
Jenny Uglow, Mr Lear. A Life of Art and Nonsense (2017), available in paperback.
Useful links:
Most of Lear’s Ligurian sketches can be viewed at https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/catalog/hou01475_hou01475c02223
Lear’s Diaries can be viewed at https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/24/resources/3092 https://viewer.lib.harvard.edu/viewer/URN-3:FHCL.HOUGH:9468180?canvasId=https%3A%2F%2Fnrs.lib.harvard.edu%2FURN-3%3AFHCL.HOUGH%3A9468180%3AMANIFEST%3A3%2Fcanvas%2Fcanvas-drs%3A44447495
Marco Grazioli, ‘A Blog of Bosh’. https://nonsenselit.com/ and https://leardiaries.wordpress.com/ (extracts from Lear’s diaries).
Ross Balzaretti
Ross Balzaretti is Emeritus Professor of Italian History at the University of Nottingham. His published work since 1990 has focused on Italian history between the end of the Roman empire and the beginning of the twentieth century, especially the early medieval period. He has written widely on the history of travel to and within Italy, which has included analysis of historic landscape and the drawings made of them, including those by Edward Lear.
This article is published by Marysia Zipser, Founder & ACT Ambassador, Beeston, Nottingham. https://www.artculturetourism.co.uk/ https://www.artculturetourism.co.uk/blog
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A fascinating account of Edward Lear’s life. Lear was an extremely interesting man, best known to me until now for his whimsical poetry. I hadn’t realised Edward Lear was an artist as well and a talented one too. I still recite ‘the owl and the pussycat’ to myself from time to time as my children are now grown up and flown the nest. It still makes me smile, but I still don’t know what a runcible spoon is.
Thank you for this insight into Lear’s life Ross.
Yes I agree Marcus. These and other sketches from this short trip show off this part of the Ligurian coast very well. His sketches of the western Riviera are equally fascinating.
A significant amount of Lear's correspondence remains in private hands and unpublished, some was destroyed after his death, so we will probably never know if they met. While it seem likely they would have done in fact Lear didn't socialise much when he was in San Remo, so his opportunities to meet Clarence would have been limited.
Thank you Ross for the excellent article. The images are fascinating; his landscapes have grace (the trees in Frascati from Villa Mondragone) and whimsy (Chiavari 22 May 1860) in spades. Such a shame that there is no record of his meeting Clarence Bicknell www.clarencebicknell.com who was in Bordighera from 1878 to 1918 or even knowing about each other.