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)

EDL034 - Edward Lear: View of the village of Himara (Khimára/Cimara) on the southern Albanian coast, 25 October 1848. “The broad watercourse, or ravine, in which the pass terminated, widened out gradually between lower hills, and shortly opened in a view of the formidable Khimára itself - perched on a high isolated rock, the torrent running below it to the sea, with Corfu forming the background of the picture. Khimára is now a ruined place, since its capture by the overwhelming Ali Pashá, but it still retains its qualities of convenient asylum for doubtful or fugitive characters: for what force can penetrate the fastnesses by which the rock is surrounded, without time being given to the pursued to escape beyond the possibility of capture? At the foot of this celebrated Acroceraunian stronghold I sat down to sketch, before scaling the height.” Edward Lear in Albania (London 2008), p. 134.