Trasacco

Edward Lear (1812-1888)
Trasacco

Signed lower left: E. Lear del. 1844. and inscribed with title lower right
Black chalk and pencil heightened with white on buff paper, with corners cut
13.5 by 21.7 cm., 5 ¼ by 8 ½ in.

Provenance:
John Scandrett Harford (1787-1866);
By descent until 2015

Engraved:
By J. Whimper for Edward Lear's Illustrated Excursions in Italy, 1846, pl.6, facing p.22

Trasacco sits on the south side of Lake Fucino. Lear records: `Trasacco, the Transaqua of old, now a small town of seven hundred and fifty inhabitants, seems to have no claim to antiquity of origin, beyond its having been built on the site of a palace of Claudius…… But what pleased me most at Trasacco was a view near a curious but picturesque old tower, square at its base, and round at top, over-looking all the wide Lake, with the distant Velino beyond.'

The engraving differs slights from this drawing with shepherd and sheep on the rock in the lower right corner.