Catania and Mount Etna
1847
Before he wrote nonsense poems about owls and pussycats, Edward Lear was a traveling landscape artist capturing the world's dramatic scenery. In this sketch from 1847, he paints the massive, snow-capped Mount Etna looming over the town of Catania. The foreground is a chaotic mess of dark, jagged rocks—likely cooled lava from the volcano—painted with thick, energetic brushstrokes. The unfinished edges give it a raw, immediate feel, as if Lear was racing against the changing light to capture the Sicilian atmosphere.
- Technique
- oil paint