Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots

Edward Lear’s album of parrots contains the finest illustrations of the family ever produced. Lear (1812–88) turned his hand to many things in the course of his artistic and literary life—landscape painting, nonsense verse, and the illustration of birds and reptiles. His work as a natural history draftsman lasted little more than the first decade of his career, until his eyesight became too weak for the detail of feathers and scales. The Psittacidae is Edward Lear’s most remarkable achievement: he conveyed with telling sympathy the carriage of a bird, the grasp of the claws, the tilt of the head, its grave, curious, or quizzical expression. The book, first issued in parts, was drawn, lithographed, and published on a shoestring by Lear himself in a tiny edition. Commentary by Robert McCracken Peck.