Edward Lear (1812–1888), Parakeet in Flight , Watercolor, over some pencil, on wove paper, Gift of Mrs. Vincent Astor , 1977.23
Edward Lear's Bird
The affinity between serious scientific study of animals and flights of the imagination is epitomized by the works of the English artist and writer Edward Lear. Best remembered today for his nonsense poetry, especially the poem The Owl and the Pussycat, Lear began his career as an "ornithological draughtsman" employed by the Zoological Society of London. His first publication, printed when he was nineteen years old, was Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or parrots, in 1830, to which the drawing of the parakeet is likely related.