Letters to friends
William Holman Hunt [1, 2]
Condé Terrace, Corfu October 15th 1856
Dear Daddy [3]
Your delightful letter of Sept 21 came just in time to greet me on my return here after a 2 months tour, during which I have thoroughly explored & 'done' Mount Athos - & also have seen Troy. I was longer away, & spent more money than I intended, owing to having had delays - 1st from a very serious fall, 2nd from the illness of my servant & 3rd of my own, but in the end I did all I had to do - tho' whether well or not è altra cosa I cannot rest without adding to what I already know & have seen of the world - & such a stranger page of the book of knowledge than the last I have gathered exists not.
The details of Athos I shall reserve for Egg's letters [4] I think, as I shall have a good deal to fill up this with. [............]
I have brought back some glorious subjects from Athos - & wish I could show you what they are like. [then passage deleted, before subject changed].
[..........] Half I have promised to go to Mount Ida in the spring - half I think of coming to England & doing a work on Athos - half of going to Crete. Bah! - One may see clearer in a month or two perhaps as the kittens said when they were born blind.
[.........] You must ask Egg [4] for the Description of the Holy Mountain.
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Notes
[1] William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolism. Lear made friends with many of the Brotherhood and their circle and Hunt visited his studio in Stratford Place to see his drawings. Lear was anxious to develop his skills as an oil painter and Hunt encouraged him to do more detailed sketching in the open air. They worked together on this in Sussex in the summer of 1852 and a long-lasting friendship developed.
[2] The extracts above come from a long letter written just after Lear returned to Corfu after his temporary quarantine.
The original comes from the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas.
[3] 'Daddy' was Lear's nickname for Hunt from an early stage in their friendship, and he referred to two other members of the Brotherhood as 'Uncles', although all were significantly younger than him.
[4] The two references to Augustus Egg (1816-63) in the letter are tantalising. Egg was also associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and Lear had presumably come to know him chiefly through that circle though both had studied around the same time at Sass's School of Art in Bloomsbury. Egg saw himself as a follower of Hogarth and his early paintings often took literary subjects. He was also an actor and exhibition organiser. It seems from these brief sentences that as well as his lost journal whilst in Athos, Lear had written a 'Description' of Athos in letters to Egg, to which he attached some importance. So far no trace of that correspondence has been discovered.
Dear Daddy [3]
Your delightful letter of Sept 21 came just in time to greet me on my return here after a 2 months tour, during which I have thoroughly explored & 'done' Mount Athos - & also have seen Troy. I was longer away, & spent more money than I intended, owing to having had delays - 1st from a very serious fall, 2nd from the illness of my servant & 3rd of my own, but in the end I did all I had to do - tho' whether well or not è altra cosa I cannot rest without adding to what I already know & have seen of the world - & such a stranger page of the book of knowledge than the last I have gathered exists not.
The details of Athos I shall reserve for Egg's letters [4] I think, as I shall have a good deal to fill up this with. [............]
I have brought back some glorious subjects from Athos - & wish I could show you what they are like. [then passage deleted, before subject changed].
[..........] Half I have promised to go to Mount Ida in the spring - half I think of coming to England & doing a work on Athos - half of going to Crete. Bah! - One may see clearer in a month or two perhaps as the kittens said when they were born blind.
[.........] You must ask Egg [4] for the Description of the Holy Mountain.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Notes
[1] William Holman Hunt (1827-1910) was an English painter and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His paintings were notable for their great attention to detail, vivid colour, and elaborate symbolism. Lear made friends with many of the Brotherhood and their circle and Hunt visited his studio in Stratford Place to see his drawings. Lear was anxious to develop his skills as an oil painter and Hunt encouraged him to do more detailed sketching in the open air. They worked together on this in Sussex in the summer of 1852 and a long-lasting friendship developed.
[2] The extracts above come from a long letter written just after Lear returned to Corfu after his temporary quarantine.
The original comes from the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas.
[3] 'Daddy' was Lear's nickname for Hunt from an early stage in their friendship, and he referred to two other members of the Brotherhood as 'Uncles', although all were significantly younger than him.
[4] The two references to Augustus Egg (1816-63) in the letter are tantalising. Egg was also associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and Lear had presumably come to know him chiefly through that circle though both had studied around the same time at Sass's School of Art in Bloomsbury. Egg saw himself as a follower of Hogarth and his early paintings often took literary subjects. He was also an actor and exhibition organiser. It seems from these brief sentences that as well as his lost journal whilst in Athos, Lear had written a 'Description' of Athos in letters to Egg, to which he attached some importance. So far no trace of that correspondence has been discovered.