Editing Edward Lear (section)

{{Short description|British artist and writer (1812–1888)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- For more information see [[:Template:Infobox Writer/doc]]. -->
| name             = Edward Lear
| image            = Edward Lear 1866.jpg
| alt              = 
| caption          = Lear in 1866
| pseudonym        = 
| birth_name       = 
| birth_date       = {{birth date|1812|5|12|df=y}}
| birth_place      = [[Holloway, London|Holloway]], [[Middlesex]], England
| death_date       = {{death date and age|1888|1|29|1812|5|12|df=y}}
| death_place      = [[Sanremo]], [[Liguria]], Italy
| resting_place    = 
| occupation       = Artist, illustrator, writer, poet
| citizenship      = British, Italian
| education        = 
| alma_mater       = 
| period           = 19th century
| genre            = Children's literature, [[literary nonsense]] and [[limericks]]
| subject          = 
| movement         = 
| notableworks     = ''[[A Book of Nonsense]]'', "[[The Owl and the Pussy-Cat]]"
| partner          = 
| relatives        = 
| awards           = 
| signature        = 
| signature_alt    = 
| website          = 
| portaldisp       = 
}}
'''Edward Lear''' (12 May 1812<ref>Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), and Katharine Baetjer. 2009. ''British paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1575–1875''. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 270. {{ISBN|1588393488}}</ref><ref>Vivien Noakes says Lear's birth certificate gives 13 May as his birthdate but says "there is some doubt about the exact date". Noakes, Vivien. 1986. ''Edward Lear, 1812–1888''. New York: H.N. Abrams. p. 74. {{ISBN|0810912627}}</ref> – 29 January 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his [[literary nonsense]] in [[poetry]] and prose and especially his [[limerick (poetry)|limericks]], a form he popularised.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://iai.tv/articles/is-it-irrational-to-be-rational-auid-1240|title=Is It Irrational To Be Rational?|date=11 June 2019|website=IAI TV – Changing how the world thinks|language=en-GB|access-date=20 June 2019}}</ref>

His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to make illustrations of [[bird|birds]] and animals, making coloured drawings during his journeys (which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books) and as a minor illustrator of [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson]]'s poems.

As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes and alphabets. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennyson's poetry.