His time there led to two richly illustrated books, Views in Rome and its Environs (1841) and Illustrated Excursions in Italy (1846–47). Lear found the damp British climate a challenge, and he moved to Rome in 1837, joining a circle of expatriate English painters and writers. In his early 20s he developed a reputation as a brilliant observer of animals, but his poor eyesight made the work challenging, and he soon began to concentrate on painting landscape watercolours, equally vivid but much freer. The young Edward was educated mostly at home, largely because he suffered from epilepsy and chronic asthma, but displayed talents as an artist and draughtsman, providing illustrations for the ornithologist Prideaux Selby. His father was a stockbroker, but seems to have had money troubles, and his sister Ann, 21 years older, oversaw his upbringing. Born 20th of no fewer than 21 children, Edward Lear grew up in a noisy middle-class household in Holloway, north London.
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