Before Edward Lear Was A Limerick Genius, He Was A Teenage Parrot-Painting Prodigy

"When he was young, Lear was employed as an ornithological illustrator, and he spent years learning to draw birds, favoring live models in an era when most worked from taxidermy. Before he turned 20, he’d published Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots, a critical success, and the first monograph produced in England to focus on a single family of birds."

Article source here:Arts Journal