Edward Lear in Albania: Journals of a Landscape Painter in the Balkans

There is 'luxury and inconvenience on the one hand, liberty, hard living and filth on the other'. So Edward Lear described the mysterious and often misunderstood country of Albania. Edward Lear's travels through Albania and Macedonia in 1848 came about when an outbreak of cholera closed off all other routes out of Salonica - the port in which he arrives as these journals begin - setting him off on this unusual adventure. His meticulous journals offer a unique insight into the Balkans in this period; the difficulties and romance of travelling in Albania - especially as an Englishman, visiting places never previously seen by foreigners; and the profound effect of the landscape and its people on an artist's mind. Lavishly illustrated with the artist's own paintings and suffused with a unique charm, "Edward Lear in Albania" catalogues his idiosyncratic observations of this beautiful and unknown land. Including vivid insights into the environment, culture and politics of the period, these Journals offer an intimate portrait of a wild yet captivating corner of Europe.