Lear made several visits to the mainland regions of Greece known today as the Peloponnese, Attica,  Central Greece, Thessaly, Epirus, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Central Macedonia and Western Macedonia.

On this page you will find a list of the various journeys, with links to web pages and details of printed texts.

• June–July 1848: Athens, Central Greece and the island of Euboea
• September 1848: Macedonia
  
• March–April 1849: The Peloponnese, Attica and Central Greece
• April–May 1849: Epirus and Thessaly
• August–October 1856: Mainland Greece and Mount Athos
        Part One: From Corfu to Salonica
        Part Two: From Salonica to Mount Athos
• April 1857: Epirus: Ioannina and the Zagoria villages

September 1848: Macedonia

This was part of a longer journey (numbered series 1–218) which continued to the present-day countries of North Macedonia and Albania. Numbers 4–23  are within the present-day borders of Greece and include  Salonica, Yenidje [Giannitsa], Vodhena [Edessa] and Ostrovo [Arnissa].

From the sketches made on this journey and his 1849 journey to Epirus and Thessaly, Lear published Journals of a Landscape Painter in Greece and Albania, & c. (London: Richard Bentley, 1851).

Some excerpts from his journals and letters were published in Edward Lear in the Levant: Travels in Albania, Greece and Turkey in Europe, 1848–1849. Edited by Susan Hyman. (London: John Murray, 1988).

April–May 1849: Epirus and Thessaly

Numbered series 1–83.

Itinerary: Patras–Corfu–Preveza (Nicopolis)–Arta–Suli–Parga –Ioannina–Metsovo–Meteora–Larissa–Tempe–Ioannina–Patras.

Lear's account of this journey, together with seven associated lithographs, was published as the last part (pp. 339–428) of  Journals of a Landscape Painter in Greece and Albania, & c. (London: Richard Bentley, 1851).

Views of Syra/Syros in Passing

Although Lear never landed in the Cyclades his travels often took him via Syros, which before the building of the Corinth Canal was an important centre and junction for Aegean shipping.  On the way back from Crete to Athens in 1864, for instance, he wrote “The multitude of ‘Isles of Greece’ is quite uncommon and lovely . . . About eight we reached Syra. A wonderful voyage!” 

Because of quarantine regulations passengers did not go ashore; the drawings illustrated here were made from the deck while the ship was at anchor.