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LEAR, EDWARD (1812-1888)

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Originally appearing in Volume V16, Page 330 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LEAR, See also:EDWARD (1812-1888) , See also:English artist and humorist, was See also:born in See also:London on the 12th of May 1812. His earliest drawings were ornithological. When he was twenty years old he published a brilliantly coloured selection of the rarer Psittacidae. Its See also:power attracted the See also:attention of the 13th See also:earl of See also:Derby, who employed Lear to draw his Knowsley See also:menagerie. He became a permanent favourite with the See also:Stanley See also:family; and Edward, 15th earl, was the See also:child for whose amusement the first See also:Book of Nonsense was composed. From birds Lear turned to landscape, his earlier efforts in which recall the manner of J. D. See also:Harding; but he quickly acquired a more individual See also:style. About 1837 he set up a studio at See also:Rome, where he lived for ten years, with summer See also:tours in See also:Italy and See also:Sicily, and occasional visits to See also:England. During this See also:period he began to publish his Illustrated See also:Journals of a Landscape Painter: charmingly written reminiscences of wandering, which ultimately embraced See also:Calabria, the Abruzzi, See also:Albania, See also:Corsica, &c. From 1848-1849 he explored See also:Greece, See also:Constantinople, the Ionian Islands, See also:Lower See also:Egypt, the wildest recesses of Albania, and the See also:desert of See also:Sinai. He returned to London, but the See also:climate did not suit him.

In 1854-1855 he wintered on the See also:

Nile, and migrated successively to See also:Corfu, See also:Malta and Rome, finally See also:building himself a See also:villa at See also:San Remo. From Corfu Lear visited See also:Mount See also:Athos, See also:Syria, See also:Palestine, and See also:Petra; and when over sixty, by the assistance of See also:Lord See also:Northbrook, then Govenor-See also:General, he saw the cities and scenery of greatest See also:interest within a large See also:area of See also:India. From first to last he was, in whatever circumstances of difficulty or See also:ill-See also:health, an indomitable traveller. Before visiting new lands he studied their See also:geography and literature, and then went straight for the See also:mark; and wherever he went he See also:drew most indefatigably and most accurately. His sketches are not only the basis of more finished See also:works, but an exhaustive See also:record in themselves. Some defect of technique or eyesight occasionally See also:left his larger oil See also:painting, though nobly conceived, crude or deficient in See also:harmony; but his smaller pictures and more elaborate sketches abound in beauty, delicacy, and truth. Lear modestly called himself a topographical artist; but he included in the See also:term the perfect rendering of all characteristic See also:graces of See also:form, See also:colour, and See also:atmosphere. The last task he set himself was to prepare for popular circulation a set of some 200 drawings, illustrating from his travels the scenic touches of See also:Tennyson's See also:poetry; but he did not live to See also:complete the See also:scheme, dying at San Remo on the 3oth of See also:January 1888. Until sobered by See also:age, his conversation was brimful of humorous fun. The paradoxical originality and ostentatiously uneducated draughtsmanship of his numerous nonsense books won him a more universal fame than his serious See also:work. He had a true artist's sympathy with See also:art under all forms, and might have become a skilled musician had he not been a painter. Swainson, the naturalist, praised See also:young Lear's See also:great red and yellow See also:macaw as " equalling any figure ever painted by See also:Audubon in See also:grace of See also:design, See also:perspective, and anatomical accuracy." See also:Murchison, examining his sketches, complimented them as rigorously embodying See also:geological truth.

Tennyson's lines " To E.L. on his Travels in Greece," mark the poet's genuine admiration of a cognate spirit in classical art. See also:

Ruskin placed the Book of Nonsense first in the See also:list of a See also:hundred delectable volumes of contemporary literature, a See also:judgment endorsed by English-speaking See also:children all over the See also:world. See Letters of Edward Lear to See also:Chichester See also:Fortescue, Lord Carling See also:ford, and Frances, Countess See also:Waldegrave (1907), edited by See also:Lady See also:Strachey, with an introduction by See also:Henry Strachey. (F.

End of Article: LEAR, EDWARD (1812-1888)

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