Edward Lear (1812-1888)

Lear met Thomas Baring, later the Earl of Northbrook, in February 1848, and described him as 'an extremely luminous & amiable brick, & I like him very much...& I suppose he likes me or he wouldn't take the trouble of knocking me up as he does considering the lot of people he might take to instead' (Letter to Chichester Fortescue, 12 February 1848, in V. Noakes, Edward Lear: The Life of a Wanderer, London, 2006, p. 71).

For other works by Lear in Egypt see lots 71, 72, 73 and 75.