I lived from 1812-1888. I was from England, and am in the English category.
I influenced poet John Wheelwright.
Edward Lear was born in London, the 20th child of a stockbroker.
His father alleged that the family was of Danish origin but records have been traced to Dorset from the 17th century. He had an unhappy childhood as neither parent had much time or energy to spare.
He was closer to his sister Ann, who became a substitute mother and taught him to draw. From early childhood, he suffered from depression and by the age of six, he was having epileptic fits, an illness he did his best to conceal.
He started writing poetry to amuse the family of one of his sisters and in his late teens embarked on a career as an artist - producing a book of picture for the Zoological Society in London.
He was invited to Knowsley Hall by the Earl of Derby to make studies of their private menagerie but was soon amusing the children of the household with comic drawings and rhymes.
In 1837 he went to Italy to paint landscapes and spent much of the rest of his life there. During a visit to England in 1846 he published his ‘Book of Nonsense’. He enrolled at the Royal Academy to improve his skill as an artist but received little recognition in his lifetime.
Both his watercolours and his nonsense verse are now highly regarded. The Owl and the Pussy-Cat is taken from Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets, published in 1871.
His father alleged that the family was of Danish origin but records have been traced to Dorset from the 17th century. He had an unhappy childhood as neither parent had much time or energy to spare.
He was closer to his sister Ann, who became a substitute mother and taught him to draw. From early childhood, he suffered from depression and by the age of six, he was having epileptic fits, an illness he did his best to conceal.
He started writing poetry to amuse the family of one of his sisters and in his late teens embarked on a career as an artist - producing a book of picture for the Zoological Society in London.
He was invited to Knowsley Hall by the Earl of Derby to make studies of their private menagerie but was soon amusing the children of the household with comic drawings and rhymes.
In 1837 he went to Italy to paint landscapes and spent much of the rest of his life there. During a visit to England in 1846 he published his ‘Book of Nonsense’. He enrolled at the Royal Academy to improve his skill as an artist but received little recognition in his lifetime.
Both his watercolours and his nonsense verse are now highly regarded. The Owl and the Pussy-Cat is taken from Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets, published in 1871.
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