Albania in the Painting of Edward Lear (1848)

Albanien in der Kunst des Malers Edward Lear (1848)

Pikturat shqiptare të Eduard Lirit (Edward Lear, 1848)

EDL026 - Edward Lear: Watercolour of Berat in central Albania, with the Osum (Apsus) River, and Mount Tomorr in the distance. 15 October 1848. “As this day was to be passed on the banks of the Apsus, for the purpose of sketching Tomóhr, I awoke and rose at three, and by daylight the mountain sparkled like clear crystal. A sketch of the palace, and a visit to Hussein Pashá’s brother, Achmet Bey (an hour of pipes and coffee), and ten o’clock is arrived. A Kawás and horses were ready, for I had planned to go some miles from the city, and was soon on my way upon a white charger, most gorgeously bedecked, with my armed guide on another, trotting (for the deep mud of last week’s rain is already dry) by the river-side as far as the bridge, by which I had arrived on the 14th. The Kawás put up his horses at an hut, and I drew very satisfactorily till it was time to return; and although a grey sirocco had thrown a cloud over all the beauty of colour, yet the form of Tomóhr is in itself a picture, combined with the broad Beratino in its stony channel and cliff banks, and the distant fortress of Berát perched on its rocky hill.” Edward Lear in Albania (London 2008), p. 95-96.