Mount Olympus from Larissa, Thessaly, Greece
1850–85
Medium
Watercolor
Dimensions
sheet: 7 x 15 in. (17.8 x 38.1 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Estate of Florence B. Selden, in memory of Carl L. Selden, 1996
Accession Number
1996.205
Tags
Art Historical Context
Edward Lear's *Mount Olympus from Larissa Thessaly, Greece*1850–85) is a luminous watercolor that transports viewers to the ancient heart of Greece. Painted during Lear's extensive travels through the Mediterranean—a pursuit that defined his career as a landscape artist and illustrator—this panoramic vista captures Mount Olympus, the mythical throne of the Greek gods, rising dramatically from the Thessaly plains near Larissa. The intimate sheet size (7 x 15 in.) belies its expansive scope, blending rugged mountains, a serene lake, and foreground figures of men and women going about their lives...
About the Artist
Edward Lear
Edward Lear (1812–1888) was a British artist, illustrator, author, and poet whose creative output ranged from meticulous natural history illustration to landscape painting and the beloved comic verse of his limericks and nonsense poetry. Born in London as the twentieth of twenty-one children, Lear largely educated himself as a draughtsman and began his professional career illustrating parrots for ...