Category:Edward Lear

Edward Lear was an English artist, author, illustrator, and poet. He was the 21st child in his family, born on May 12, 1812. He died on January 29, 1888. He and his sister Ann, who was 21 years older than Edward, moved out of the house when he was four years old because of financial difficulties. At age six, he began to suffer grand mal seizures. He also suffered from bronchitis, asthma, and toward the end of his life, partial blindness.

He began drawing pictures of parrots in 1830. Two years later, when he turned twenty years old, 42 of the paintings were published as lithographic plates, which were bound together as a book. Of the 175 books published, about 100 still remain. Edward would go to the London Zoo to paint live parrots. He became known as one of the best natural history artists of his time due to the quality displayed in his parrot paintings.