Pencil, pen and brown ink and watercolour on paper. The house at Therapia on the banks of the Bosphorus was the summer residence of the British Ambassador at Constantinople. At the time Edward Lear painted this view in August 1848, the Ambassador was Stratford Canning (1786-1880), later Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe. Edward Lear is now known primarily for his nonsense poetry, but he was also an accomplished artist and an enthusiastic traveller. Following a chance encounter with Lear in Corfu in 1848, Stratford Canning invited the artist to join his party travelling to Constantinople. Lear fell ill in Athens and was nursed back to health at Therapia, where he spent three months convalescing and giving drawing lessons to the Ambassador's daughters.
