#edward lear

[vox-anglosphere]

Edward Lear

[thestuffedalligator]

Always thinking about Edward Lear. Fascinating man. Painted parrots. Popularized the limerick. Epileptic and almost definitely queer by modern standards. Loved his tabby cat and it was rumoured that he had a perfect copy of his house built when he moved to Sanremo so the cat wouldn’t be confused. He drew himself like this.

He wrote The Owl and the Pussycat and a poem where he described himself as “ill-tempered and queer,” and “perfectly spherical.” I feel like I’ve met several men like this in my life.

[bottegapowerpoint]

Edward Lear, Porto Tre Scoglie, Albania (1862)

[askyea-poesy]

And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, they danced by the light of the moon.

Edward Lear

[laclefdescoeurs]

View of Janina, Edward Lear

[lionofchaeronea]

River Pass between Barren Rock Cliffs, Edward Lear, 1867

[a-book-of-creatures]

The heraldic cat reminded me of Edward Lear’s drawings of his cat Foss

[arthistoryanimalia]

For #InternationalTigerDay 🐅 on #Caturday:

“Tigerlillia Terribilis” from Edward Lear’s Nonsense Botany (1871–77)

[picturebookshelf]

The Jumblies

(Original Edition: 1968 -- This Edition: 1986) Story: Edward Lear -- Art: Owen Wood

[rearte2]

by Edward Lear, 1832

[dumbbitchhour]

Edward Lear, A View of Kythera, Greece, 1863 x

[calabria-mediterranea]

Reggio Calabria (Calabria, Italy) in a 19th century painting by Henry Jaeckel.

"Reggio is indeed one vast garden, and doubtless one of the loveliest spots to be seen on earth. A half-ruined castle, beautiful in colour and picturesque in form, overlooks all the long city, the wide straits, and snow-topped Etna volcano on the island of Sicily beyond."

- Edward Lear, Journals of a Landscape Painter in Southern Calabria, 1852

Henry Jaeckel, Aragonese Castle of Reggio Calabria with view of the Mount Aetna and Sicily, 1853

[thestuffedalligator]

Here is a totally unprompted, baseless, and useless crackpot theory.

In the poems The Jumblies and The Dong with the Luminous Nose by Edward Lear, Lear describes the Jumblies as having “sky-blue hands and sea-green hair,” and most artists — including Lear himself — would draw them as little humanoid gremlin creatures.

I think he was describing blue and gold macaws.

Blue and gold macaws have blue wings and a prominent green crest on their heads. “Their heads are green, their hands are blue, and they went to sea in a sieve.”

And here’s another fact: Edward Lear was famous for painting parrots. He published an entire book of parrots painted by studying live examples at the London Zoo and from private collections, including the blue and gold macaw.

Which means he definitely studied them in person before he wrote the poem.

Does any of this mean anything? Absolutely not, but you should read some of Edward Lear’s nonsense poetry because he was writing his own private poetic universe and characters and concepts he would describe in one poem would be expanded in others. The Dong is connected to the Jumblies and the Quangle Wangle Quee, which in turn connects him to the Pobble Who Has No Toes, and his name is the Dong.

[lindahall]

Edward Lear – Scientist of the Day

Edward Lear, an English nature artist and poet, was born May 12, 1812.

read more...

[laclefdescoeurs]

Jerusalem, 1858, Edward Lear

[lionofchaeronea]

Taormina and Mount Etna, Edward Lear, 1882