Temple of Horus at Edfu seen from the Northwest

Former TitleThe Temple of Horus at Edfu, seen from the Northwest

Artist Edward Lear (English, 1812 - 1888)

Date1854

MediumWatercolor and gouache on blue paper

DimensionsOverall: 6 15/16 × 14 7/8 inches (17.6 × 37.77 cm)
Framed: 20 × 26 × 1 inches (50.8 × 66.04 × 2.54 cm)

Credit LineBequest of Milton McGreevy

Object number81-30/41

SignedRecto, b.r.corner: "EL"

On View

Not on view

Collections

European Art

Terms

Exhibition History

Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, The Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK, June 23-August 18, 1996; The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, Jacksonville, FL, September 20-November 29, 1996; The Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, NH, December 21, 1996-March 2, 1997, no. 69, as Temple of Horus at Edfu seen from the Northwest.

Landscapes: Real and Imagined, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, August 16, 2014-February 22, 2015, as Temple of Horus at Edfu seen from the Northwest.

Gallery Label

Edward Lear visited the temple of the falcon god Horus on the Nile river in Egypt on February 12, 1854. Lear documented his journeys through thousands of drawings, watercolors, and paintings often producing multiple images of the same scene, in an effort to market them. In this particular work, he captured a tranquil and meditative atmosphere, as the silhouette of the temple and low hills stand out against the rising sun.

Provenance

Purchased from Durlacher Brothers, New York, by Milton McGreevy (1903-1980), Shawnee Mission, KS, 1960-1980;

Bequeathed by Milton McGreevy to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1981.

Published References

Roger Ward, Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 211-13, (repro.), as Temple of Horus at Edfu seen from the Northwest.

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