Lear, Edward, 1812–88, English humorist and artist. At 19 he was employed as a draftsman by the London Zoological Society; the paintings of birds that he produced for The Family of the Psittacidae (1832) were among the first color plates of animals ever published in Great Britain. Lear is best known for his illustrated limericks and nonsense verse, which were collected in A Book of Nonsense (1846), Nonsense Songs (1871), Laughable Lyrics (1877), and others. He wrote several illustrated journals of his travels through S Europe.
(born May 12, 1812, Highgate, near London, Eng.—died Jan. 29, 1888, San Remo, Italy) English painter and comic poet. From age 15 he earned his living by drawing. Employed to illustrate the earl of Derby's private menagerie in the 1830s, he later produced Book of Nonsense (1846) for the earl's grandchildren. His other works include Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets (1871), containing “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat,” and Laughable Lyrics (1877). He is best known for popularizing the limerick. He also published volumes of bird and animal drawings and seven illustrated travel books. Epileptic and depressive, he lived mainly abroad after 1837.
Bibliography
See biographies by A. Davidson (1938, repr. 1968), V. Noakes (1969), and P. Levi (1995); studies by V. Dehejia (1989) and J. Wullschläger (1995).
Lear, Edward
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Edward Lear, drawing by William Holman Hunt, 1857; in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
(credit: Courtesy of the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool)
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