Lear, Edward
NAME: Lear, Edward
ACHIEVEMENT(S): Nonsense books and bird/animal drawings
NICKNAME/ALIAS:
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: May 12, 1812, Holloway, London, England
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: January 29, 1888, San Remo, Italy; Aged 75
DISCIPLINE: Landscape painter, illustrator and writer
FIELD: Art and Literature
LANGUAGE: English
PARENTS: Jeremiah Lear; Ann Skerrett
SIBLINGS: 20 siblings,13 surviving infancy: Ann; Sarah; Henry; Olivier;
Mary; Eleanor; Jane; Frederick; Harriet; Cordelia; Florence; Charles;
Catherine
SPOUSE: None
CHILDREN: None
EDUCATION: Kindergarten; Royal Academy Schools
MAJOR WORK: "A Book of Nonsense"
LIFE AND TIMES:
By the time Lear was 16, his ability to draw birds had become notable. He acquired his first patron, Mrs. Godfrey Wentworth. Her father was a patron of painter J.M.W. Turner, and she was a keen amateur zoologist. Enchanted by Lear's birds, she introduced him to Prideaux Selby, the ornithological artist. Under his influence Lear's birds grew larger and more vivid. Lear grew so confident in his drawing that two years later he started work on his own book of ornithological drawings: a book of parrots titled "Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots".
Lear's interest in parrots coincided with the opening of the Zoological Gardens at Regent's Park, and he was given permission to make drawings of the live parrots, and study the stuffed ones in the zoo's museum. The work, most of which appeared in 1831, received much praise and recognition.
In 1831-32, Lear travelled to the continent with taxidermist and ornithologist John Gould, who was touring European zoos to produce a five-volume work, "Birds of Europe". From 1832 to 1837, Lear was engaged by Edward Stanley, Earl of Derby, to draw the Earl's private menagerie at Knowsley, Lancashire.
Once the project was finished, Lear took off for Italy, determined to become a topographical landscape painter. He also hoped to find some relief for his bronchitis and asthma. He travelled to Rome, where he supported himself by working as a drawing-master.
Lear returned to England in 1841 and visited the Earl of Derby at Knowsley, and it was for the grandchildren of the Earl that Lear wrote his first limericks, eventually published as his first "Book of Nonsense" (1846).
Lear spent much of the summer of 1841 at Knowsley, transferring his views of Rome to lithographic stones, the basis for his first book of landscapes, "Views in Rome and its Environs", which appeared in December, 1841. He then returned to Rome, visiting Sicily and the Abruzzi, a wild and high section of the Apennines lying due east of Rome. In the Abruzzi, he collected Italian folksongs, which he included in his book, "Illustrated Excursions in Italy" (1846), along with pen and water color sketches.
In 1845, Lear returned to England for a year and a half, and in 1846 brought out four books: "A Book of Nonsense"; "Gleanings from the Menagerie and Aviary at Knowsley Hall"; and two volumes of "Illustrated Excursions in Italy," one on the Abruzzi and one on the Papal States. All publications were well received.
His nonsense verse was a hit and <gave drawing lessons to> Queen Victoria* admired the Italian views so much she ordered 12 drawing lessons from Lear. By mid-July, 1846, Lear was installed as drawing-master at Osborne House, the home of the Queen and Prince Albert on the Isle of Wight, returning to Buckingham Palace with the Queen in early August.
Back in Rome in 1846, Lear was given a hero's welcome. His Italian "Views", his royal connections, and the fame of his limericks made him a celebrity. In 1849, returning to England after a two-year tour of Italy, Greece, Turkey and the Middle East, Lear stopped off in Malta. Here he met Frank Lushington. Lear continued to London and Lushington joined him three months later.
On a walking tour to the Lake District, Lear and Lushington met poet <a pal of> Tennyson* and his wife, who were on their honeymoon. Lear and the Tennyson’s became lifelong friends. Lear also met historian <met> Carlyle* and writer <met> Wilkie Collins*.
Lear had always felt a need for more artistic training and in 1850 enrolled in the Royal Academy Schools in London for three terms. At the time, he was preparing to publish his "Journal of a Landscape Painter in Greece and Albania". Published in 1851, it also included a long and entertaining text by Lear. In 1852, painter <encouraged by> Hunt* visited Lear, and gave him advice and encouragement. That year Lear published his "Journal of a Landscape Painter in Southern Albania".
Lear always suffered poor health in England, and with his condition deteriorating, he decided to travel abroad again at the end of 1853. He went via Alexandria to Malta, and from 1855, Lear and Lushington lived together on Corfu. The relationship ended rancorously in 1858 (though the rift was later healed) and Lear returned to Rome, where he stayed until 1860 with his Greek servant, Giorgio.
In 1861, he returned to Corfu with Giorgio, who had now become a close companion. Over the next few years, Lear and Giorgio traveled frequently between London and southern Europe and North Africa.
During the winter of 1867-68, Lear stayed with English scholar John Addington Symonds and his family in Cannes. It was for Symond's three-year old daughter, Janet, ill in bed at Christmas, that Lear wrote and illustrated the poem, "The Owl and the Pussy-cat," his first complete nonsense song and the only one with a happy ending. It was printed in his second nonsense book (along with "The Jumblies"), entitled "Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets" in 1871.
The 1870s were to be the decade of Lear's Nonsense Songs. The 1871 nonsense book was followed by "More Nonsense, Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, etc." (1872), and "Laughable Lyrics" (1877).
After the publication of his "Journal of a Landscape Painter in Corsica" (1870), Lear at last felt the desire to settle somewhere, and had a house built on the coast of Italy, at San Remo. It was ready in March, 1871. During 1873-75, he traveled to India and Ceylon with Giorgio, and then returned to San Remo.
In 1883 Giorgio died, and Lear became ill with pleurisy, followed by bronchitis, from which he never completely recovered. In an exhausting effort during the winter of 1885-86, Lear re-drew all 200 of the illustrations he had previously done for an edition of Tennyson's poems. But the endeavor wore him out, and he was unable to leave his house from early 1886. He lived with a new manservant and his celebrated cat, Foss, until he died in January, 1888.
ASSESSMENT: He is known more as the author of "The Owl and the Pussy-cat" and other nonsense verse than for his painting.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None
ONELINER: Edward Lear, Victorian author of nonsense poems
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
EB, DNB
Chitty, Susan, The Singular Person Called Lear, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1988