Edward Lear, Nuneham, 1860. Oil paint on canvas; 18 3/4 × 29 1/4 in. (47.6 × 74.3 cm). Gift of the Berger Collection Educational Trust, 2018.22

image height: 18 3/4 in, 47.6250 cm; image width: 29 1/4 in, 74.2950 cm; frame height: 29 5/16 in, 74.4538 cm; frame width: 40 1/2 in, 102.8700 cm; frame depth: 2 1/4 in, 5.7150 cm

European and American Art Before 1900

European Painting and Sculpture before 1900

This object is currently on view

Like many British artists of the 1800s, Edward Lear traveled extensively in Europe and the Middle East. This view of a country estate is one of his rare pictures of his native land. Instead of his more typical sweeping panoramas, here he narrowed the distant view of the spires of Oxford and the meandering Thames River and concentrated on the dense bank of trees in the picture’s middle ground. 

Commissioned by Frances, Countess Waldegrave, Nuneham, Oxfordshire; private collection, England; sale, Christie’s, London, June 6, 1997, lot 114; from which acquired by William M. B. Berger and Bernadette Johnson Berger, Denver; Berger Collection Educational Trust; gifted to the Denver Art Museum, 2018. Provenance research is on-going at the Denver Art Museum and we will post information as it becomes available. Please e-mail provenance@denverartmuseum.org, if you have questions, or if you have additional information to share with us.

• “Treasures from the Berger Collection: British Paintings 1400-2000” — Denver Art Museum, 10/2/2014 – 9/9/2018