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In 1832 Edward Lear was
employed by the Earl of Derby to make
coloured drawings of the rare birds and
animals in the menagerie at Knowsley Hall.
The Earl also allowed Lear the means to
travel widely. He published
accounts of his trips to Italy (1846),
Albania and Illyria (1851), Calabria (1852),
and Corsica (1870). Edward Lear also visited
the Holy Land and Greece.
He is chiefly remembered for his nonsense
poetry, the first volume of which was
written for his patron's grandchildren in
1846 and was simply entitled A Book of
Nonsense. It contained his favourite
poetic format, the limerick, and was
illustrated throughout. His poetry was
henceforth marked by an air of ludicrous
fantasy, as well as a unique inventiveness.
A deep sense of sadness can also be traced in his nonsense verse. This
melancholy was a reflection of the life of the writer, who, despite the support
of friends such as Tennyson's wife Emily, suffered from depression and
loneliness.
Since his death, appreciation of his
artistic painting, the water-colours in
particular, has risen. His real fame,
however, was secured by poems from Nonsense
Songs (1871) such as 'The Owl and the
Pussycat'.
1812-1825
Edward Lear was born in Highgate, 12 May.
He was the twentieth child of Jeremiah Lear, a
London stockbroker, and his wife Ann.
Four years after his birth, Jeremiah fell a
defaulter in the Stock Exchange and the
family had to abandon the fashionable life
to which they were accustomed. Edward's
upbringing was entrusted to his sister Ann,
twenty-one years his senior, and Mrs Lear
had nothing more to do with it. Young Edward
certainly resented his mother's rejection,
but found all the love Edward Lear needed in Ann.
He was first attacked by what he called 'the
Demon', epilepsy, when he was five or six,
and a few years later 'the Morbids',
sudden changes of mood with bouts of acute
depression, began.
His early education was completely left to
Ann and Sarah, another sister: beside the
typical tuition books of the age they read
to him classical tales and modern poetry
(the Romantic poets), and taught him to
draw, especially natural subjects.
c.1826
His father retires and as Edward Lear cannot
provide for his children, Edward, who still
lives with Ann, begins to earn his living as
an artist.
1830
Edward Lear
Starts work on Illustrations of the Family
of Psittacidae, or Parrots in June. The
first two folios are published in November
and immediately give him a reputation as an
ornithological draughtsman; he is nominated
as an Associate of the Linnean Society. Lear
in 1831
1831
He interrupts the series about the Psittacidae and begins a collaboration with
John Gould (The Birds of Europe).
In October Edward Lear wrote in a letter to Charles
Empson also containing a sketch of himself:
This is amazingly like; add only - that both my knees are fractured from being
run over which has made them very peculiarly crooked - that my neck is
singularly long, a most elephantine nose - & a disposition to tumble here &
there - owing to being half blind, & you may very well imagine my tout ensemble.
1831 or 1832
Edward Lear
Visits Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Berne, and
Berlin with Gould.
1832
He
starts drawing the animals in the
menagerie of Knowsley Hall for Lord Stanley.
1835
Edward Lear
Travels to Ireland with Edward Stanley,
Bishop of Norwich, and his son Arthur
Penrhyn Stanley, July-August. His interst
turns to landscape painting.
1836
Edward Lear
Walking tour in the Lake District,
August-October. His eyesight and general
health deteriorate.
1837
Sets out for Rome travelling via Belgium, Luxenburg, Germany, and Switzerland, July.
Reaches Rome, December.
1838
Travels to southern Italy, May-August.
Earliest Edward Lear oil painting, June.
1839
Walking tour towards Florence, May-October.
1841
Returns to England, spring. Publication of
Views in Rome and its environs. Visits
Scotland, September. Returns to Rome,
December.
1842
Edward Lear
Visits Sicily, April-May, and the Abruzzi,
July-October.
1843
Returns to the Abruzzi, September-October.
1845
Meets Chichester Fortescue, April. Returns
to England, May.
1846
Publication of Illustrated Excursions in
Italy (2 vols.). Publication of first
edition of A Book of Nonsense, using the
pseudonym Derry Down Derry. Publication of
Gleanings from the Menagerie and Aviary at Knowsley Hall. Gives a series of
twelve drawing lessons to Queen Victoria. Returns to Rome, December.
1847
He
Visits Sicily and southern Calabria and
witnesses outbursts of revolution,
May-October.
1848
Edward Lear
Meets Thomas Baring, later Lord Northbrook,
February. The state of Italy becomes more
unsettled, and Lear leaves Rome, April.
Travels via Malta to Corfu and the Ionian
Islands, April-May. Visits Athens, Marathon,
Thermophylae, and Thebes, where he is taken
ill, June-July. Arrives in Costantinople,
August. Travels across Greece and into
Albania, September-December. Returns to
Malta, and meets Fraanklin Lushington,
December.
1849
Edward Lear
Travels to Cairo, Suez, and Sinai,
January-February. Returns to Malta, then
sets out for southern Greece with F.
Lushington, March. Travels in the Morea and
visits Janina, Vale of Tempe, and Mount
Olympus, March-July. Returns to England,
July. Attends Sass's School of Art to
prepare drawings for entrance to the Royal
Academy Schools, November-December.
1850
Edward Lear
Accepted as a probationer, January, and as a
full student, April. First picture accepted
by the Royal Academy. By November he is
working on his own again.
1851
Edward Lear
Publication of Journals of a Landscape
Painter in Albania, & c. Meets Alfred and
Emely Tennyson.
1852
Introduced to Holman Hunt, who supplies to
teach him his own methods of painting, early
summer. Lives with Hunt at Clive Vale,
Hastings, and meets other members of the
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, July-December.
Edward Lear begins to gain confidence in oil
painting, and conceives the plan of
illustrating Tennyson's poems. Publication
of Journals of a Landscape Painter in
Southern Calabria.
1853
Edward Lear
Publication of the first of his musical
settings of Tennyson's poems. Unable to cope
any longer with the damp Englsh weather,
he leaves to spend the winter in Egypt,
December.
1854
Edward Lear
Travels up the Nile as far as the first
cataract, January-March. Returns to England,
then visits Switzerland, August-October.
1855
Publication of the second edition of A Book
of Nonsense. Accompanies Lushington to Corfu
for the winter. Spending most of his time
alone, he becomes lonely and depressed.
1856
Edward Lear
Employs Giorgio Cocali, April. Travels via
Albania and Greece to Mount Athos and Troy,
August-October.
1857
Visits Albania, April. Returns to London for
the summer, May, and to Corfu for the
winter, November.
1858
Edward Lear
Travels to Bethlehem, hebron, Petra, the
Dead SEa, Jerusalem and Lebanon, March-June.
Returns to England, August. Decides to
winter in Rome.
1859
Edward Lear
Returns to England in May, and spends most
of the summer at St Leonards. Returns to
Rome, December.
1860
To England, May. Begins work on large Edward Lear oil
paintings of the Cedars of Lebanon and
Masada at Oatlands Park Hotel, October.
1861
His sister Ann becomes ill, and dies 11
March. Visits Florence, May-August. Cedars
of Lebanon exhibited in Liverpool and
receives favourable reviews, September.
Returns to winter again in Corfu, November.
Publication of third edition of A Book of
Nonsense under his own name, December.
1862
Edward Lear
Cedars of Lebanon exhibited in the Great
International Exhibition, March, but hung
very high and not well received. Returns to
England, May. leaves England for Corfu,
November. Despite the increasing sales of
the last ten years, he now realizes that his
chances of becoming established are
diminishing, and Edward Lear paintings on his first group
of Tyrants.
1863
Visits the other Ionian Islands, April-May.
Returns to England, June. Publication of
Views in the Seven Ionian Islands, December.
1864
Edward Lear Returns to Corfu, January. The
island is ceded to the Greeks and he leaves for Athens and Crete, April. In
London, June-November. Decides to winter in
southern France and leaves England. Finds
rooms in Nice, November.
1865
Edward Lear
Writes the first of his Nonsense stories,
The History of the Seven Families of the
Lake Pipple-Popple, February.. Returns to
England, April. Lady Waldergrave commissions
a Edward Lear painting of Venice, and he travels there, November. Decides to
winter in Malta, December. |
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