In 1831 Lord Stanley met the young artist Edward Lear (1812 - 88) at London Zoo, where the painter was creating highly detailed watercolours of the parrots there, forty-two of which Lear had published in a lavish folio volume, ‘Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae’ (1832). As a result Lord Stanley invited Edward Lear to Knowsley to paint in watercolours the birds and animals that had arrived there from all over the world, and which lived in specially designed aviaries and menageries. Lord Derby’s private zoo became the largest one of its type in Britain during the nineteenth century.
While living intermittently at Knowsley between 1831 and 1837 Edward Lear concentrated all his energies on drawing the living and dead specimens of animals and birds in beautifully delineated and vividly coloured large watercolours, that are now thought to be some of the finest natural history studies ever made. These watercolours even rival the work of his famous American contemporary John James Audubon, who visited Knowsley at this time and corresponded with the 13th Earl. A selection of the finest of Lear’s watercolours was published in 1846, faithfully lithographed in colour by J.W. Moore in the first of two volumes titled ‘Gleanings from the Menagerie and Aviary at Knowsley’. This work was financed by Lord Derby and edited by John Gray of the British Museum, who also selected the folio-sized illustrations and wrote the accompanying texts.
Apart from painting his extraordinary natural history watercolours, while living at Knowsley, Lear also entertained Lord Derby’s grandchildren, great-nephews and great-nieces in the Hall’s nursery after dinner. From this talent to amuse children the artist developed his skill to compose limericks and nonsense verse as well as drawing lively caricatures. A selection of these poems and drawings were published in 1846 in his ever popular Book of Nonsense, which has never been out of print. Later on Lear published further collections of nonsense poems and alphabets; perhaps his most famous verses are ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’.
In 1837 Lear’s eyesight began to suffer due to the close work needed to complete the highly accurate natural history drawings and watercolours. It also thought that Lear wanted to escape from the oppressive presence of John Gould, an older illustrator based at the Zoological Society of London. Already developing a talent as a landscapist on tours of Ireland and Lake District, Lear decided to tour Italy and record his travels in drawings and watercolours. Both Lord Derby and his nephew Robert Hornby generously sponsored Lear’s first extended visit to Rome and central Italy.
For the rest of his life Lear travelled abroad, depicting landscapes and living mainly in Italy, as well as touring all across the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. On his visits back to England the artist usually revisited Knowsley and later corresponded assiduously with the 13th Earl’s son and grandson, the 14th and 15th Earls of Derby respectively, who both remained committed collectors and patrons of Lear’s landscape work. Looking back on his prolific and fulfilled life as an artist, despite his many health problems, Lear always spoke fondly of his time at Knowsley as the happiest years of his life. He was immensely proud of the fact that four generations of the Stanley family had been committed supporters and patrons of him as an artist.
