Plains of Bengal, from above Siligoree

Download free · 4000 × 2577px View on a wall Edit

Artist: Edward Lear (British, 1812–1888)
Medium: Watercolor, pen and brown ink, and gouache on moderately thick, moderately textured, cream wove paper
Size: Mount: 11 9/16 x 17 1/8 inches (29.4 x 43.5 cm)
Museum: Yale Center for British Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

Edward Lear made a tour of India in 1873 under the patronage of his friend and patron Lord Northbrook, a Liberal politician who had recently been appointed viceroy of India, a position he held from 1872 to 1876. Although wary of making such an arduous journey in his sixties, Lear had received the promise of £1000 for Indian views from his British patrons and the prospect of so many lucrative commissions persuaded him to leave his home in San Remo, Italy, where he had lived since 1869.

Arriving in Mumbai (then Bombay) in late November, Lear stayed until January 1875 and spent his fifteen months crisscrossing the Indian subcontinent making sketches and detailed drawings along the way. These he worked up into finished watercolor and oil paintings for his clients once back in his studio in San Remo.

Text: Yale Center for British Art.