LEAR, Edward. Journal of a Landscape Painter in Corsica. London, Robert John Bush, 1870.
8vo. Original terracotta cloth by W. Bone & Son, London, with their ticket, boards with borders in blind, spine lettered in gilt, brown endpapers; pp. xvi, 272, wood-engraved frontispiece, 39 wood-engraved plates, and wood-engraved illustrations after Lear, one wood-engraved map of the island; light wear to hinges, spine a little darkened, otherwise a very clean and fresh copy.
First edition. When Lear visited Corsica in 1867 and 1868, whilst wintering at Cannes, he noted a strange melancholic atmosphere, which he attributed to the unusual effects of light experienced there, and his Journal (Lear's last travel book), both depicts and describes this. In preparing the plates and illustrations for the work, Lear opted to use the medium of wood-engraving (rather than lithography) for the reproduction of his water-colours, since the laborious process of preparing the lithographic plates used in his previous Journals had become a tiresome and disagreeable chore for him. Although the majority of the plates were engraved by Lear, the remainder were prepared for him by others and in his preface he acknowledges their 'care and accuracy' in engraving his drawings.
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