ID: 700008145 Page link: http://vocab.getty.edu/page/cona/700008145	Record Type: Movable Work

Petra, April 14, 1858 (drawing (visual work); Edward Lear (British, 1812 - 1888) (British Artist); 1858; J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles, Los A...; 2008.45)

Note: The abandoned historic rock-bound city of Petra, famous capital of the Nabataean Arabs, was known through ancient texts but remained unexplored by westerners until 1812. The location held a fascination for the Victorians despite the difficulties of getting there, and descriptions trickled out. The traveler, topographical artist, and writer Edward Lear was an early visitor and this view of the amphitheater was made under extremely adverse circumstances, as Lear recorded in his detailed journal (now in the Houghton Library, Harvard). He reached Petra on April 13, 1858 after a six-day camel journey and was 'more delighted and astonished than I had ever been by any spectacle'.Lear immediately set about making drawings of the site, doing so 'uninterruptedly until it became too dark to see the marks of my pencil'. Overnight a rowdy mob of 100 men from various local tribes gathered around his camp, demanding payment for crossing their land. Deciding that he could not negotiate with such a diverse group, he gave orders in the morning for the tents to be taken down in preparation for leaving, and slipped away to make 'a last drawing at the theatre', the sheet proposed here for acquisition, inscribed 14 April, 7.30am. As Lear described it: 'I had not long to devote to my drawing from the upper part of the theatre; yet how vivid and enduring are the memories of that half-hour! The pile of vast rocks before me was dark purple and awful in the shadows of the morning, and the perpendicular walls of the wild rent of the Sik were indescribably grand, closed almost at their roots, but reflecting bright sky and white clouds in the stream which burst through them among thickets of oleander and broom and rushed onward below the semicircle of the ancient theatre cut in the living rock below me.' After making the sketch, Lear wrote his name on the wall of the chamber of the Khazneh so that if he was killed a search party would know that he had reached Petra.On Lear's return to the camp he found that the crowd had doubled and become even more agitated. He and members of his party were roughed up and their pockets were emptied. In the end they were allowed to leave, Lear's visit much shorter (and infinitely more dramatic) than he had originally planned.Lear's choice of blue paper probably reflects the cool early morning light and purplish rock colors he sought. His many pencil color notes on the sheet result from his habit (particular vital in these circumstances) of sketching the scene quickly in pencil and then adding the watercolor later in the studio. Some of the few watercolors made by Lear in Petra survive in the Houghton Library. Lear used a selection of his watercolors as the basis for oil paintings, which he sold - with limited success - at the Royal Academy in London. In 1859 he made an oil of the theatre at Petra based on this watercolor; the oil is now in a private collection in Jordan.

Titles:

Petra, April 14, 1858 (preferred,C,U,RP,English-P,,)

Catalog Level: item

Work Types:

drawing (visual work) [300033973] (preferred)

..... (Objects Facet, Visual and Verbal Communication (hierarchy name), Visual Works (hierarchy name), visual works (works), <visual works by material or technique>)

Classifications:

drawings (preferred)

Creation Date: 1858

Creator Display:

Edward Lear (British, 1812 - 1888) (British Artist) [preferred,JPGM]

Lear, Edward (British painter, printmaker, and author, 1812-1888) [500016261]

Locations:

Current: J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles, Los Angeles county, California, United States) [500329598] J. Paul Getty Museum, J. Paul Getty Trust, Corporate Bodies (Corp. Body)

Repository Numbers: 2008.45

Other: Creation: Al Urdun [1000121] (Geographic)

Display Materials: Pen and brown ink with watercolor and gouache

	pens (drawing and writing implements) [300022452]
	.......(Objects Facet, Furnishings and Equipment (hierarchy name), Tools and Equipment (hierarchy name), equipment, <equipment by process>, image-making equipment, <equipment for drafting| drawing| and writing>, <drafting| drawing and writing equipment by specific type>)

	ink [300015012]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by function>, coating (material), <coating by form>)

	watercolor (paint) [300015045]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by function>, coating (material), <coating by form>, paint (coating), <paint by composition or origin>, water-base paint)

	gouache (paint) [300070114]
	.......(Materials Facet, Materials (hierarchy name), materials (substances), <materials by function>, coating (material), <coating by form>, paint (coating), <paint by composition or origin>, water-base paint)

Dimensions: 36.2 x 54 cm (14 1/4 x 21 1/4 in.)

Cultures:

British (preferred)

General Subject:

landscapes (preferred)

Specific Subjects:

	Petra [7002383]
	.....() (TGN)

Inscriptions: Inscribed 'Petra. / 14. April. 1858. / 7.30. am.' and numbered '(48)' in ink and the same very faintly in pencil lower right; also inscribed with numerous notes of color and subject, including 'rox', 'oleander', 'Partridges', 'Barking Dove', 'Hoopoe', 'Broom'.

List/Hierarchical Position:

..... Movable Works

.......... Movable Works by class: drawings, paintings, prints, other two-dimensional media

Sources and Contributors:
Petra, April 14, 1858	........ [JPGM,VP]
	........ J. Paul Getty Museum database for collections (2000-)

Subject: ....... [JPGM,VP]

Note:
English	..... [JPGM]
	..... J. Paul Getty Museum database for collections (2000-)