A pleasing biography. Lear is best known nowadays as the writer of nonsense verse such as The Owl and the Pussycat, but he was primarily a painter in watercolours who travelled widely. His landscapes of the Near East and India are exquisite. Not surprisingly he became Queen Victoria's drawing teacher. Although lonely and melancholy he enchanted children and was a close friend of leading figures of his time including Tennyson and the Pre-Raphaelites.
(Jeremy Swann - bwl 16 December 2002 ) |
