Lear, Edward 1812-88
English artist, humorist and traveller

He was born in London, the youngest of 20 children, and was educated at home, mainly by his sister, Anne. In 1832 he was engaged by the 13th Earl of Derby to make coloured drawings of the rare birds and animals in the menagerie at Knowsley Hall (Merseyside). Under the Earl's patronage he travelled widely in Italy and Greece, making landscape sketches and oil paintings which he published in several travel books, including Sketches of Rome (1842) and Illustrated Excursions in Italy (1846). He became a friend of his patron's grandchildren, whom he entertained with nonsense limericks and other verse which he illustrated with his own sketches and first published (anonymously) as A Book of Nonsense in 1846. Later he published Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets (1870), More Nonsense Rhymes (1871) and Laughable Lyrics (1876). He spent most of his latter years in Italy.

Bibliography: S Chitty, That Singular Person Called Lear (1988)