Edward Lear's "Kinchinjunga from Darjeeling, India."

Exhibition celebrates Edward Lear

Not content to depict only the landscapes of England in their works, many of Britain's greatest Victorian-era artists were inspired by seemingly more exotic and mysterious locales in the Mediterranean, the Middle East and India. Their travels, and the images inspired by these foreign lands, is the subject of a new exhibition at the Yale Center for British Art that has as its focus the work of Edward Lear, author of "The Owl and the Pussy-cat" and inveterate artist traveler. "Edward Lear and the Art of Travel" explores anew the life and times of the artist and other British artist travelers of the Victorian era. The exhibit opens Sept. 20 and will be on view through Jan. 14, 2001. The exhibition also celebrates the gift of almost 400 drawings and paintings by Lear given to the center in 1997 by the late Donald C. Gallup '34, Ph.D. '39, who served for many years as curator of American literature at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library (see obituary). Gallup's gift is rivaled in size and value only by the collection of works given to the center by the late Yale alumnus Paul Mellon, whose gifts of art established the center. "Edward Lear and the Art of Travel" features 114 drawings, 12 paintings and 6 books by the artist, as well as over 60 works by other artists, including J.M.W. Turner, Richard Parkes Bonington, David Roberts and John Frederick Lewis "Most accounts of the artistic achievements of Edward Lear take as their starting point the notion that he is better known as the author of 'The Owl and the Pussy-cat' and other nonsense verse than as a topographical draftsman and painter," says Scott Wilcox, curator of prints and drawings at the center. "His art is considered largely in isolation, as the extraordinary creation of a fascinatingly eccentric Victorian. This exhibition situates Lear's art within the great outpouring of images of foreign lands produced by British artists in the later 18th and 19th centuries." Although Lear suffered from epilepsy, asthma, poor eyesight and chronic depression, he traveled widely and was an indefatigable sketcher who documented a lifetime of journeys throughout the Mediterranean and India. He started as a natural history draftsman, publishing at the age of 18 "Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae or Parrotts." By his early 20s, he began creating landscapes. He spent a decade in Italy from 1837, achieving notice as a specialist in foreign views at a time when the expansion of tourism was creating a new market for such works, and at a time when British artists tried to appeal to new audiences with ever more exotic scenes, Wilcox says. During Lear's years in Italy, he developed a highly individual drawing style, which he used to record subsequent travels through Greece, the islands of the Mediterranean, Asia Minor, the Holy Land and Egypt. In the exhibition, a large group of sketches from a boat trip up the Nile in 1867 -- many in sequences of three, four or five drawings done at 10- or 15-minute intervals -- gives the viewer the impression of looking over Lear's shoulder as he encounters the landscape. A highlight of the exhibition is Lear's monumental oil painting "Kinchinjunga from Darjeeling," inspired during a visit to India in 1873 at the age of 61. "Edward Lear and the Art of Travel" is accompanied by a fully illustrated 120-page catalog with approximately 60 works reproduced in color. It also includes an essay by Wilcox using examples of the broader phenomenon of travel art to illuminate Lear's artistic achievements, as well as entries on the individual works in the exhibition and a complete checklist of all the works by Lear in the center's collection. A number of special events are being offered in conjunction with the exhibit. Some of these are described below. Check future issues of the Yale Bulletin & Calendar for news of other events. Opening lecture Vivien Noakes, an authority on Edward Lear, will present the opening lecture for the exhibition on Wednesday, Sept. 20, at 5:15 p.m. at the Yale Center for British Art. Noakes will talk on the topic "Edward Lear: Artist and Traveler Extraordinary." The event is free and open to the public. Noakes has acted as a consultant on Lear's works to all the major auction houses in London and New York and was curator of the 1985 exhibition "Edward Lear, 1812-1888" at the Royal Academy of Arts and the National Academy of Design. She also curated the 1988 exhibition "Edward Lear, the Centenary Exhibition" at the Fine Art Society in London. She has authored two books on the artist: "The Painter Edward Lear" and "Edward Lear: The Life of a Wanderer." Wednesday evening series As part of its third annual series of Wednesday evening lectures, discussions and performances, the Yale Center for British Art will host several events related to the Lear exhibit. In addition to the talk by Noakes, these include a roundtable discussion on Sept. 27 with Scott Wilcox and other organizers of "Edward Lear and the Art of Travel," and a multimedia performance titled "How Delightful to Know Mr. Lear" on Oct. 4. In the performance, directed by Caleb Hammond, actors, dancers and singers will interact with a video projection of images inspired by Lear's art and a script created from his writings. Both events take place at 5:15 p.m. and are free and open to the public. The Yale Center of British Art, 1080 Chapel St., is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sunday, noon-5 p.m. Admission is free. For a recorded listing of museum tours and events, call (203) 432-2800 or visit the center's website at www.yale.edu/ycba. 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