Parrots by Edward Lear, 1812-1888

by Rick Brentlinger
(Pace, FL, USA)

Parrot pictures are from “Illustrations of the Family of the Psittacidae or Parrots,” published in Great Brittain in 1832 by British artist Edward Lear.

Lear began painting parrots in 1830 when he was eighteen years old. In 1832 he published 42 paintings of parrots as lithographed plates bound together in book form. A total of 175 books containing his hand-colored prints were made, of which about 100 survive today.

Remember that in 1832, color plates in books were colored by hand or required separate press runs to add in each desired color. The skilled work of an artist or repeated press runs limited the number of books that could be profitably produced. Lear's Parrot books would have been purchased by the wealthy or by museums and universities.

Lear painted many of his parrots live at the London Zoo. Some of his exotic subjects lived in private collections on English estates and were painted in their home environment. The quality of his parrot paintings established Lear’s reputation as one of Britain’s best natural history artists.

These pictures are in the public domain and may be freely used by anyone anywhere for any purpose.