Psittacidae, or Parrots
Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots, London: 1832.
In 1830, when Edward Lear was just eighteen years old, he began a project that would establish his reputation as one of the foremost natural history painters of the nineteenth century. It was his idea to illustrate and publish a book on the parrots of the world. Working from live specimens at the London Zoo and in private collections throughout England, he spent the next two years making hundreds of spectacularly beautiful-and scrupulously accurate-watercolor studies, eventually publishing 42 of them as lithographic prints to be bound together in book form. Only 175 of these books were ever published. Fewer than 100 copies survive today.
All 42 plates from this publication are presented in Parrot Gallery 1, Parrot Gallery 2 and Parrot Gallery 3.