The Grand Canal with Santa Maria Della Salute, Venice, Italy, 1865

Edward Lear (1812 –1888) was an artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, best-known for his nonsense poetry and limericks. As an artist, he began his career as a draughtsman for the Zoological Society, before travelling through the Mediterranean and Middle East publishing several illustrated books. While staying in Northern Italy c.1880, Lear drew 16 naive illustrations of birds for Charles Geffrard Pirouet when he was a small boy. These have become some of the artist’s most loved works.