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)

EDL032 - Edward Lear: Costumes in Dukat (Doukhides/Dukádhes/Ducades) south of Vlora in southern Albania, 22 October 1848. “I gave the last hour of daylight to delineating a tree full of Albanian idlers who sat smoking tranquilly on the gnarled wide-spreading branches of a huge ilex, which hangs over a precipice - as wild a piece of poetical painting as Salvator might wish for. At sunset, the indescribable dark terror of this strange place was at its full; yet unwilling to retreat to my night’s prison till the last moment, I lingered on a rock in the middle of the ravine, while crowds gathered round me, saying, “Scroo, scroo, scroo,” after their fashion, and were greatly pleased at my drawing them. At length it became quite dusk, and I went reluctantly to my second night-home in Khimára.” Edward Lear in Albania  (London 2008), p. 116.