View of Jerusalem 1858

Curator: This is Edward Lear's "View of Jerusalem," currently residing in the Tate Collections. Editor: Ah, it's got that wistful, faraway feel, like a memory half-forgotten. The washes are so delicate. Curator: Lear, known for his nonsense verse, also worked as an ornithological and landscape draughtsman. His travels throughout the Mediterranean deeply influenced his art. Editor: I love how the fortified walls sit back, almost secondary to the foreground's gentle slope and those gnarled trees. They seem like old friends watching over the city. Curator: Lear was fascinated with capturing the picturesque, and that included specific cultural signifiers recognizable to his British audience. Editor: It's funny, isn't it? We search for the exotic, yet filter it through our own familiar lens. Still, there's something incredibly endearing in that very human impulse.