Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or

Parrots
Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots is an 1832
book containing 42 hand-coloured lithographs by Edward Lear. Illustrations of the Family
He produced 175 copies for sale to subscribers as a part- of Psittacidae, or Parrots
publication, which were later bound as a book. Lear started
painting parrots in 1830 when he was 18 years old, and to get
material for his book he studied live birds at the London Zoo and
in private collections. The latter included those of Edward Smith
Stanley, later 13th Earl of Derby, who had a large menagerie at
Knowsley Hall, and Benjamin Leadbeater, a taxidermist and trader
in specimens. Lear drew onto lithographic plates for printing by
Charles Joseph Hullmandel, who was known for the quality of his
reproductions of fine art.

Although the book was a financial failure, Lear's paintings of

parrots established his reputation as one of the best natural history
artists of his time. It found him work with John Gould, Stanley and
other leading contemporary naturalists, and the young Queen
Victoria engaged him to help her with her painting technique.
Parrots was a forerunner to the major volumes of bird paintings by
Gould, and Lear's work has influenced children's illustrators such
as Beatrix Potter and Maurice Sendak as well as bird specialists
like William Y. Cooper, Elizabeth Butterworth and Walton Ford.
Plate 21 depicting a male red-
Lear continued with his nature painting for some years, but from capped parrakeet
about 1835 he became concerned about his failing eyesight, and Author Edward Lear
increasingly concentrated on his nonsense works and landscape
painting, although he may have contributed to the illustrations for Country United Kingdom
Charles Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle. Language English
Subject Parrots
Genre Ornithology
Contents Publisher Edward Lear
Background Publication 1832
date
Edward Lear
Pages 42 colour
Research
illustrations
Production
Reception
Related works
Legacy
Notes
References
 Cited texts
Selected bibliography
External links

Background
Early scientific works on birds, such as those of Conrad Gessner, Ulisse
Aldrovandi and Pierre Belon, relied for much of their content on the
authority of the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle and the teachings of
the church,[2][3] and included much extraneous material relating to the
species, such as proverbs, references in history and literature, or its use as
an emblem.[4] The arrangement of the species was by alphabetical order in
Gessner's Historia animalium, and by arbitrary criteria in most other early
works.[2] In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Francis Bacon had
advocated the advancement of knowledge through observation and
experiment,[3] and the English Royal Society and its members such as
John Ray, John Wilkins and Francis Willughby sought to put the empirical
method into practice,[5] including travelling widely to collect specimens
and information.[6]
Plate XLIII from Samuel
The first modern ornithology, intended to describe all the then-known birds
Pepys's hand-coloured copy
worldwide,[7] was produced by Ray and Willughby and published in Latin of Francis Willughby's 1678
as Ornithologiae Libri Tres (Three Books of Ornithology) in 1676,[8] and Ornithology[1]
in English, as The Ornithology of Francis Willughby of Middleton, in
1678.[9] Its innovative features were an effective classification system
based on anatomical features, including the bird's beak, feet and overall size, and a dichotomous key, which
helped readers to identify birds by guiding them to the page describing that group.[10] The authors also
placed an asterisk against species of which they had no first-hand knowledge, and were therefore unable to
verify.[11] The commercial success of the Ornithology is unknown, but it was historically significant,[12]
influencing writers including René Réaumur, Mathurin Jacques Brisson, Georges Cuvier and Carl
Linnaeus in compiling their own works.[13][14]

George Edwards was a leading British naturalist and illustrator in the 17th century. He was the librarian to
the Royal College of Physicians with access to their collection of 8,000 books, and he used these, together
with stuffed and live animals, to produced illustrated publications. His four-volume A Natural History of
Uncommon Birds (1743–1751) and its three supplements covered more than 600 natural history topics, and
his publications enabled Linnaeus to name 350 bird species, including many type specimens.[15]

During the early 19th century, several ornithologies were written in English,[16] and Edward Lear's main
contributions to the development of bird painting were to concentrate on a single bird group, in his case the
parrots, paint mainly from live birds rather than stuffed specimens or skins, and use a large page size.[17][18]
Lear was not the first to produce an illustrated parrot monograph. French artist Jacques Barraband created
145 images for François Levaillant's Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets (1801–1805).[19] Lear's book had
an immediate effect, including its impact on John Gould's five-volume Birds of Europe, which was
published between 1832 and 1837.[20]

Edward Lear
Edward Lear was born on 12 May 1812 in Holloway, North
London,[a] the penultimate (and youngest to survive) of perhaps 21
children of Jeremiah and Ann (née Skerrett) Lear.[24][b] Jeremiah
was a stockbroker who in 1816 defaulted to the London Stock
Exchange to the tune of £2150 11s. 1d.[c] in the economic turmoil
following the Napoleonic Wars. The family left their home,
Bowmans Lodge, and Edward was raised by his eldest sister, also
named Ann, 21 years his senior. Partly because he suffered from
epilepsy, bronchitis and asthma, Ann acted as a mother to him
from when he was four until her death when he was almost 50
years old.[23]
The voyage of HMS Blossom
provided Edward Lear with his first
Ann and another of Edward's sisters, Sarah, were both competent
major commission.
artists and taught their brother to draw and paint. From 1827, aged
about 15, Edward was taking paid work, including medical
illustrations.[24] His first major commission was to illustrate an
account of the scientific discoveries of a Royal Navy expedition to the Pacific. HMS Blossom, commanded
by Captain Frederick W. Beechey, had a successful three-year voyage (1825–1828), visiting California, the
Pitcairn Islands, Tahiti and previously largely unknown parts of northwest North America. Lear painted 12
plates of birds and two of mammals for The Zoology of Captain Beechey's Voyage, probably in 1829, when
he was aged 17, or in 1830. Long delays by another contributor, the keeper of zoology at the British
Museum, Edward Gray, meant that the book was more than ten years out of date when it was finally
published in 1839, several other expeditions having taken place in the interim.[27][28]

Research
Lear's plan was to produce 175 copies of a large folio book,[d] larger than
any European nature painter had previously used. He met and became
friends with John James Audubon, who had just published his 1827
double elephant-size The Birds of America, and this book may have
inspired him to also choose a large format.[18]

The publication was to be sold by subscription as fourteen parts, each

priced at ten shillings, a total cost of £7.[18][e] Its full title as published was
Illustrations of the family of Psittacidæ, or parrots: the greater part of them
species hitherto unfigured, containing forty-two lithographic plates, drawn
from life, and on stone, as printed on the title page of the book. The first
subscribers included a friend, Mrs Anne Wentworth, and her sisters and
daughter, followed by leading naturalists, including the London Zoo's
Nicholas Vigors and the president of the Linnean Society, Edward Smith-
Stanley, later 13th Earl of Derby. Subscribers from the aristocracy Lear in 1840
included the Duke of Norfolk, the Earl of Egremont, and the Duke of
Northumberland and his Duchess. The London Zoological Society and the
Linnean Society also subscribed as organisations.[18]

Lear's early sketchbooks include sketches and drawings of parrots, including a citron-crested cockatoo, a
watercolour of two green parrots, and another of a blue macaw's head with two of its feathers, but for his
project he needed access to live birds. In June 1830 he was given permission by the Zoological Society of
London (ZSL) to sketch at London Zoo, and he also had access to the zoo's museum in nearby Bruton
Street. As well as skins and stuffed birds, the museum also had aviaries with some live birds.[18] Although
other artists were not granted similar access,[f] Lear was introduced to the ZSL by the well-connected Mrs
Wentworth, who was interested in both art and natural history.[32][33] He also painted parrots owned by
Stanley and Vigors,[18] and saw several species, including Baudin's black cockatoo, in the collection of
Benjamin Leadbeater, a taxidermist and trader in specimens.[18][34] When he could not access live birds,
Lear resorted to Gould's stuffed specimens.[18]

Production
Lear's illustrations were produced using lithography, in which artists
copied their paintings onto a fine-textured limestone slab using a special
waxy crayon. The block was then treated with nitric acid and gum arabic
to etch away the parts of the stone not protected by the wax. The etched
surface was wetted before adding an oil-based ink, which would be held
only by the greasy crayon lines, and copies were printed from the
stone.[35][36] The printed plates were hand-coloured, mainly by young
women.[35]

Lear drew directly on to the limestone instead of first making a painting

and then copying it onto the stone, thus saving him considerable expense.
Although this method was technically more difficult, drawing directly onto
stone could give a livelier feel to the final illustration, and was favoured by
some other contemporary bird artists such as John Gerrard
Keulemans.[35][36] Lear largely taught himself lithographic techniques,
Scarlet macaw, captioned
using stones hired at the studio of his printer, Charles Joseph Hullmandel. on plate 7 as Macrocercus
Hullmandel was the author of The Art of Drawing on Stone (1824), and Aracanga, red and yellow
the leading exponent of lithographic printing in Britain.[37][g] His macaw
colourists used egg white to give a sheen to the parrot's plumage and a
shine to the bird's eye. Lear designed wrappers for each part, but changed
the design when he was granted permission to dedicate his book to Queen Adelaide, consort of King
William IV.[36]

Lear struggled with the costs of producing his book, despite erasing his drawings as soon as he had the
necessary 175 copies, to reduce the expense of hiring the lithographic blocks. He ran out of funds when he
had printed only twelve of the intended fourteen parts, with 42 plates and no text.[36] He sold only 125
subscriptions, and not all his subscribers actually paid what they owed.[38] To help with funds, Lear
worked for Gould from 1832 to 1837, illustrating his five-part Birds of Europe and teaching lithography to
Gould's wife, Elizabeth. Lear still owed money for his parrots book, and in March 1833 he sold the
remaining 50 copies and the rights to the plates to Gould for £50.[39][h]

Reception
The sheer cost of producing his book meant that the final two parts were never completed and it was a
financial failure, although Lear had anticipated this possibility, saying "Their publication was a speculation
which — so far as it made me known & procured me employment in Zoological drawing — answered my
expectations — but in matters of money occasioned me considerable loss."[36]

The first two parts were published on 1 November 1830, and Lear, still only 18, was promptly nominated
for membership of the Linnean Society by Vigors and the zoologists Thomas Bell and Edward Bennett.[36]
Audubon bought a copy of the final bound book, despite its cost and his own limited funds,[41] William
John Swainson asked for duplicates of two plates that he could have framed and hang next to his Audubon
paintings, and Prideaux John Selby said the plates were "beautifully coloured & I think infinitely superior
to Audubon's in softness and the drawing as good".[36]
Parrots established Lear as a leading nature painter, and he was continually in demand thereafter.[42][43]

Related works
When Lear sold his remaining copies of Parrots to Gould, part of the
agreement was that Lear would travel to the zoos of continental Europe
with him to collect material for Birds of Europe. The trip, initially delayed
by Elizabeth Gould's premature labour and the Goulds getting influenza,
took place in July 1833, and Lear eventually produced 68 plates for the
book, acknowledged by Gould. He produced at least ten plates for Gould's
A Monograph of the Ramphastidae, or Family of Toucans. Although he
signed several plates in the first edition, his signatures had disappeared in
the second edition of 1854.[39] Lear painted backgrounds for some of the
plates in A Monograph of the Trogonidae, or Family of Trogons (1835–
1838) but all 36 plates are signed only as by John and Elizabeth Gould.[44]

Lear was fond of Elizabeth Gould, and admired John for his work ethic,
but he disliked him as a person. When Gould died in 1881, Lear wrote
"One I never liked really... a harsh and violent man... ever as unfeeling for Male Stanley's Parrakeet,
those about him."[42] now western rosella, plate
23, painted from one of Lord
Lear did not work exclusively for Gould. He had been doing watercolours Stanley's birds.[42]
for Selby's British Ornithology (1821–1834) since he was 16, and from
1825 he painted for Selby's collaboration with William Jardine,
Illustrations of Ornithology. He also illustrated Jardine's Illustrations of the Duck Tribe, and created
paintings, mainly of pigeons and parrots, for Jardine's The Naturalist's Library.[42]

Stanley became Lear's most important patron when he inherited his father's title in 1834.[42] Now Lord
Derby, he used the grounds of the ancestral home, Knowsley Hall, to create a private zoo in its 69 hectares
(170 acres) estate, and he employed Lear to paint watercolours of many of the creatures in his
menagerie.[43][i]

From about 1835, Lear became concerned about his eyesight, claiming "no birds under an ostrich should I
soon be able to see to do", and increasingly concentrated on his nonsense works and landscape painting,
although he may have contributed to the illustrations for Charles Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle.[17] In
1846, he was invited to give lessons to the young Queen Victoria to improve her landscape painting. He
gave the young queen ten lessons at Osborne House in July, and two more at Buckingham Palace in
August. Victoria sent Lear an engraving as a present the next winter; Lear told his sister Ann about the gift,
but said she should not tell anyone else lest it look like boasting.[46]

Legacy
An immediate effect of the reputational success of Lear's parrot book was its influence on Gould.[47] Until
then he was primarily a taxidermist, often working for the Zoological Society of London, with just one
published book, his 1832 A Century of Birds from the Himalaya Mountains, with backgrounds painted by
Lear.[44][j] Following Parrots, Gould decided to produce books based on Lear's model, using Hullmandel
as his printer, and over the next twenty years produced some 40 volumes.[47]

Lear's macaw Anodorhynchus leari was named by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1856. Bonaparte had
identified it as a new species from Lear's accurate painting in his book, which had been captioned as a
hyacinthine macaw. Two other parrot species named for Lear, the cockatoo Lapochroa leari (now Major
Mitchell's cockatoo) and the parakeet Platycercus leari (now crimson
rosella) are no longer accepted under those names.[48]

Lear was the first to describe five of the species and subspecies depicted.
His plates are the therefore the holotypes and he is the authority. These are
the Australasian species Baudin's black cockatoo (Plate 6 as
Calyptorhynchus Baudinii), Antipodes parakeet (Pl 25 as Platycercus
unicolor), Regent parrot (Pl 29 as Platycercus anthopeplus), Varied lorikeet
(Pl 36 as Trichoglossus versicolor) and the Pale-headed rosella subspecies
Platycercus adscitus palliceps (Pl 19 as Platycercus palliceps).[49][50]

Lear's influence on illustrators of children's books, such as Beatrix Potter

and Maurice Sendak was more through his nonsense books than his bird
paintings,[51] but other illustrators made more conscious use of his avian
works. William Y. Cooper and Elizabeth Butterworth both painted birds
from life, and made deliberate efforts to incorporate elements of Lear's Lear's Macaw plate 9,
style; Butterworth has illustrated four books on parrots, including Amazon captioned as Macrocercus
Parrots: A Monograph, written by Rosemary Low.[52] hyacinthinus, Hyacinthine
Macaw
Other contemporary artists used Lear's style with a modern twist. Walton
Ford paints parrots, but often in settings that show them in potentially
lethal situations involving traps or predators. Like Lear, Ford frequently has marginal notes on the
paintings, although in his case for the benefit of his audience, rather than as self-reminders.[53] James
Prosek made his reputation through painting fish, but also incorporated nonsense elements in his work by
creating imaginary birds in Lear's style, with annotations including alternative names, behavioural notes and
the supposed locations of sightings.[54][k]

A large collection of sketches and studies for Parrots are included in the major Lear art collection held at
the Harvard University Houghton Library.[56] In 2018, a copy of Parrots was sold at auction by Bonhams
for £90,000,[57] and in 2020 another copy was listed by Christie's with a guide price of £40,000–60,000,
and fetched £60,000.[29]

Notes
a. Until he was middle-aged, Lear celebrated his birthday on 13 May. It appears that he was
born shortly before midnight, leading to some confusion in the family.[21][22] Lear usually
said he was from Highgate, Holloway's much smarter neighbouring suburb.[23]
b. Lear himself was not consistent on the number of his siblings, and the fact that the family
reused the names of children who died young means that the true figure could be lower.[25]
c. About £168,300 at 2020 prices calculated using MeasuringWorth.[26]
d. Large folio is 53.7 by 36.5 centimetres (21.1 in × 14.4 in).[29]
e. About £630 at 2020 prices, calculated using MeasuringWorth.[30]
f. The zoologist and author William Swainson was refused similar access, and when he
nevertheless entered in the company of Audubon, he was prevented from taking notes.[31]
g. Hullmandel charged 4d to 18d per month for his blocks, depending on size.[36]
h. About £4,850 at 2020 prices calculated using MeasuringWorth.[40]
i. At its peak, Knowsley's collection contained around 20,000 individual animals. It had
representatives of 619 bird species, including 114 species of parrots, 51 raptors and 60
game birds.[45]
 j. The term "century" in the title refers to a count of 100 birds, rather than a 100-year period, as
Lear aimed to depict a hundred rare Indian bird species; 102 were actually included.[44]
k. His "cockatool" is just like a Lear-painted cockatoo, but its crest consists of Swiss Army
knife-like tools. The annotations include "efficient at most simple carpentry jobs".[54] Lear
himself created nonsense birds, such as his "Cockatooka Superba", in which the cockatoo
is emerging as the flower of a narcissus-like plant.[55]

References
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3. Birkhead (2018) pp. 11–12.
4. Kusukawa (2016) p. 306.
5. Birkhead (2018) pp. 34–38.
6. Birkhead (2018) pp. 47–50.
7. Birkhead (2018) p. 218.
8. Birkhead (2018) p. 225.
9. Birkhead (2018) p. 236.
10. Birkhead (2018) pp. 219–221.
11. Birkhead et al. (2016) p. 292.
12. Birkhead (2018) p. 239.
13. Charmantier et al. (2016) pp. 377–380.
14. Johanson et al. (2016) p. 139.
15. Lederer (2019) pp. 52–57.
16. Davison, G W H (2013). "Dresser, Seebohm, and the Scope of Palaearctic Ornithology" (http
s://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/app/uploads/2017/06/s29rbz259-268.pdf) (PDF). The Raffles Bulletin
of Zoology. Supplement No. 29: 259–268. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/202010191
73622/https://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/app/uploads/2017/06/s29rbz259-268.pdf) (PDF) from the
original on 19 October 2020. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
17. Lederer (2019) pp. 106–109.
18. Uglow (2017) pp. 45–50.
19. Peck (2020) p. 52.
20. McGhie (2017) pp. 97–100.
21. Uglow (2017) p. 10.
22. Noakes (1986) p. 74.
23. Uglow (2017) pp. 12–16.
24. Peck (2021) pp. 10–12.
25. Uglow (2017) p. 534.
26. https://www.measuringworth.com/index.php Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/2021062
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28. Peck (2021) p. 187.
29. Christies (30 July 2020). "Edward Lear (1812–1888): Illustrations of the Family of
Psittacidae, or Parrots [1830–] 1832" (https://onlineonly.christies.com/s/valuable-books-man
uscripts/edward-lear-1812-1888-141/93449). Online Auction 18887:Valuable Books &
Manuscripts. Christies. Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20210624214918/https://onlin
eonly.christies.com/s/valuable-books-manuscripts/edward-lear-1812-1888-141/93449) from
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30. "Archived copy" (https://www.measuringworth.com/index.php). Archived (https://web.archive.
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June 2021. Retrieved 23 June 2021.
31. Peck (2020) p. 25.
32. Uglow (2017) p. 39.
33. Uglow (2017) pp. 67–68.
34. Taylor (2012) p. 137.
35. McGhie (2017) pp. 139–140.
36. Uglow (2017) pp. 52–54.
37. Peck (2021) p. 41.
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47. Uglow (2017) p. 57.
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57. Bonhams (30 May 2018). "Lear (Edward) Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or
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Cited texts
Birkhead, Tim (2011). The Wisdom of Birds: An Illustrated History of Ornithology. London:
Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-0-7475-9822-0.
Birkhead, Tim (2018). The Wonderful Mr Willughby: The First True Ornithologist. London:
Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4088-7848-4.
Birkhead, Tim; Smith, Paul J; Doherty, Meghan; Charmantier, Isabelle (2016). "Willughby's
Ornithology". In Birkhead, Tim (ed.). Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis
Willughby FRS (1635–1672). Leiden: Brill. pp. 268–304. ISBN 978-90-04-28531-6.
Charmantier, Isabelle; Johnston, Dorothy; Smith, Paul J (2016). "The legacies of Francis
Willughby". In Birkhead, Tim (ed.). Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis
Willughby FRS (1635–1672). Leiden: Brill. pp. 360–385. ISBN 978-90-04-28531-6.
Johanson, Zerina; Barrett, Paul M; Richter, Martha; Smith, Mike (2016). Arthur Smith
Woodward: His Life and Influence on Modern Vertebrate Palaeontology. Geological Society
of London, Special Publications. 430. London: Geological Society of London. ISBN 978-1-
86239-741-5.
Kusukawa, Sachiko (2016). "Historia Piscium (1686) and its sources". In Birkhead, Tim (ed.).
Virtuoso by Nature: The Scientific Worlds of Francis Willughby FRS (1635–1672). Leiden:
Brill. pp. 305–334. ISBN 978-90-04-28531-6.
Lederer, Roger J (2019). The Art of the Bird: The History of Ornithological Art Through Forty
Artists. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-67505-3.
McGhie, Henry A (2017). Henry Dresser and Victorian Ornithology: Birds, Books and
Business. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-1-78499-413-6.
Noakes, Vivien (1986). Edward Lear, 1812–1888. New York: H N Abrams. ISBN 978-0-
8109-1262-5.
Peck, Robert McCracken (2021). The Natural History of Edward Lear. Princeton: Princeton
University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-21723-9.
Taylor, Sue (2012). John Gould's Extinct & Endangered Birds of Australia. Canberra:
National Library of Australia. ISBN 978-0-642-27765-7.
Uglow, Jenny (2017). Mr Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense. London: Faber & Faber.
ISBN 978-0-571-26954-9.

Selected bibliography
Audubon, John James (1804). The Birds of America (https://archive.org/details/birdsofameric
afr01audu). 1. New York: self published.
Beechey, Frederick William, ed. (1839). The Zoology of Captain Beechey's Voyage (https://
www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/87193#page/5/mode/1up). London: H G Bohn.
Darwin, Charles (1839). The Voyage of the Beagle (https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/7
1046#page/7/mode/1up). London: Henry Colburn.
Edwards, George (1743–1751). A Natural History of Uncommon Birds (Part I to IV) (https://bi
odiversitylibrary.org/page/50240591). London: Printed for the author at the College of
Physicians. Publication dates on title pages: Part I 1743, Part II 1747, Part III 1750, Part IV
1751
 Gessner, Conrad (1551). Historia Animalium Libri (https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/13
6746#page/7/mode/1up) (in Latin). 1. Zurich: C. Froschauer.
Gould, John (1832). Birds of Europe (https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/132863#page/
9/mode/1up). 1. London: self-published.
Gould, John (1834). A Monograph of the Ramphastidae, or Family of Toucans (https://www.b
iodiversitylibrary.org/item/263349#page/5/mode/1up). London: self-published.
Lear, Edward (1832). Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidœ, or Parrots (https://www.biodive
rsitylibrary.org/item/125973#page/6/mode/1up). London: self-published.
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8/bpt6k97063d) (in French). 1. Paris: Levrault, Schoell.
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34220x/page/n12) (in Latin). London: John Martyn.
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yarr_0/page/n6). London: John Van Voorst.

External links
Media related to Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots (1832) by Edward
Lear at Wikimedia Commons
The full text of Illustrations of the family of Psittacidæ, or parrots at Wikisource

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