An exhibition of sketches by the English author reveals his artistic skills and life as ‘something of a sad clown’
His nonsense verse and limericks have delighted generations of readers, with The Owl and the Pussycat among English literature’s best-loved poems, but Edward Lear most wanted recognition as an oil painter of grand subjects. Now many of the landscape sketches he created on his extensive travels worldwide are to be shown for the first time.
They make up an extraordinary visual diary of a nomadic, shy man who led an isolated life partly to conceal his epilepsy – a condition that carried great social stigma in his day. He spent more than 50 years touring Europe, the Middle East, India and beyond, creating thousands of sketches.
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