Susan Hyman Libri

This book, published in the centenary year of Lear's death, is a compilation of paintings, sketches, letters and journals, many previously unpublished, of one of Lear's earliest and most remarkable journeys. Lear travelled constantly, across countries still dangerous and unknown to Western Europeans, usually alone or with one servant, often on foot. As he travelled he captured in word and illustration the sublimity of the landscape, the richness of costume and the character of the people he encountered. Victorian Europe was both appalled and fascinated by the Greece he portrayed, whilst through his bizarre cartoons he received recognition from the Surrealists as a forerunner of their movement.