View of Eze, Côte d'Azur, South of France

Lear spent the winter between 1864 and 1865 in Nice, travelling along the coast recording the views that he saw in pencil and watercolour. In his journal he described the landscape around Eze as 'a strangely wild and magnificent coast scene' (Diary, 6. xii. 64) and celebrated the wonderfully vivid colours of the Mediterranean: 'Blue olives, blue sea and blue Estrelles. This day was perfect in loveliness, sea a sheet of emerald green, real ultramarine like a Maccaw's tail feathers.' (P. Levi, Edward Lear, London, 1995, p. 216).

Another watercolour by Lear of Eze, executed in December 1864, was sold in these Rooms, The Collection of Giorgio Marsan and Umberta Nasi; 12 December 2007, lot 70.