Welcome to The Edward Lear Society, the source of news and event information about the poet, wordsmith, writer, artist and illustrator, Edward Lear. The purpose of the Society is to advance knowledge and education and to preserve and protect all matters in connection with the Heritage, Writings, Work and Art of Edward Lear (12th May …
Sue Durrant of The Wessex Guild of Bookbinders got in touch with me at The Lear Society and I am having several volumes rebound, I thought it would be interesting to see what Keith Holdaway has produced for The Owl and The Pussycat. Keith Holdaway: ‘The book is covered in black Morocco leather with on-lays of … Continue reading »
With the help of Stephen Duckworth, Rowena Fowler has just added to her website a detailed page titled ‘Lear’s Projected Topography of Greece’. Of all Edward Lear’s extensive travels, he retained a special affection for Greece, and a feeling that his own vision as a topographical artist might suit the Greek landscape. “I cannot but … Continue reading »
Michael Roberts, an artist from Yorkshire, got in touch with the society as he was inspired many years ago having read as he said “the quirky poetry of Lear”. In his own quirky way he has reproduced several of Lear’s best known pieces. The illustrated one and five others have been donated to the excellent … Continue reading »
UPCOMING: 09.09.2022–13.11.2022 Ikon’s exhibition is the first solely devoted to Lear’s sketches and landscape drawings from across the entire span of his career. This show examines the artist’s fascination with the creative process and is especially concerned with how his work came into being – through experimental methods of composition, successive drafts, doodlings and written marginalia. … Continue reading »
My project’s objective to answer this question was to make an estimate of the number of original dated landscape drawings (as opposed to worked up watercolours) which Lear undertook in a career of over fifty years. No reliable estimate has previously been made of Lear’s work output as a topographical artist. Hope Mayo of the … Continue reading »
The purpose of this document is to give as complete a record as possible of Edward Lear’s works which are in public collections around the world and also those in institutions where researchers should be able to access them with permission. There are around 5000 such landscape drawings and many more finished watercolours and oil … Continue reading »
The first selling exhibition dedicated to Lear’s pictures for at least 30 years is under way at St James’s gallery Guy Peppiatt Fine Art. The online-only show, which runs until April 9, includes more than 30 drawings and watercolours covering his artistic career. Please click on the first link below to view the exhibition and the … Continue reading »
The Quangle Wangle’s Back! A great new rhyming picture book, illustrated in the style of Edward Lear, containing his original classic nonsense poem ‘The Quangle Wangle’s hat”. Author Rob Hann’s updated sequel “The Quangle Wangle’s Back! and a brief biography of the great man to entertain, educate and inform children and adults alike. Order from … Continue reading »
Edward Lear may “fairly be accounted one of the greatest of all natural history painters” writes David Attenborough in his forward to The Natural History of Edward Lear, a new book containing unseen works showing the nonsense poet’s prowess as a natural history painter. Robert McCracken Peck, author of the new publication is curator of art and … Continue reading »
Free public lecture Robert McCracken Peck, Curator of Art and Artifacts, Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University Edward Lear (1812–1888), best known for The Owl and the Pussycat and other nonsense poetry, was also an accomplished painter of birds, mammals, reptiles, and landscapes, and an adventurous world traveler. His paintings of parrots, macaws, toucans, owls, and other … Continue reading »