1839
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Isola Bella, Lago Maggiore is a 1839 by Edward Lear, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
You see a bright, sunny view of Isola Bella, a tiny island on Italy’s Lago Maggiore, with a castle, boats, and mountains in the distance. Lear painted this when he was just 27, during one of his long walking trips through Europe. He carried a small sketchbook and a monocle to study details quickly. The colors feel fresh and light, almost like a watercolor, even if the medium isn’t clear. If you like this, look up *sfumato*—a soft, smoky way of blending colors that some Italian painters used.
Most famous for humorous poems such as "The Owl and the Pussycat," Lear was also a painter and illustrator who wittily described himself as "Greek Topographical Painter par excellence." As a young artist, he traveled to Rome and remained abroad for the majority of his life. He undertook walking tours in Italy, Greece, Switzerland, and France, and sketched assiduously. Upon finding what he deemed a good subject, Lear observed the scenery through a monocle and then rapidly sketched the details of the view in graphite, usually recording the precise location and date. Later, he worked up the…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised but which term he never used.
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