Background
He was born to Charles Savage Landor in Florence, Italy, where he spent his childhood.
artist explorer painter writer
He was born to Charles Savage Landor in Florence, Italy, where he spent his childhood.
Landor wrote in a dry, witty style. He left for Paris at fifteen to study at the Académie Julian directed by Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefebvre. He then travelled the world, including America, Japan and of Korea, painting many landscapes and portraits and on his return to England was invited to Balmoral by Queen Victoria to recount his adventures and show his drawings.
He later travelled to Nepal and Tibet, telling of his experiences in two books: In the Forbidden Land (1898) and When he heard about the Boxer Rebellion in China he went to Peking (now Beijing) to join the victory parade, afterwards writing In 1901 he travelled from Russia to India, riding on horseback through Persia, publishing the account of that journey in the book A journey to the Philippines led to another book: In the 1900s he visited Abyssinia and painted the portrait of the Emperor Menelik.
Across Wildest Africa was published in 1906. In 1911 and 1912 he made an eventful expedition to the Mato Grosso in Brazil and in 1913 published Across Unknown South America.
He took an active role in the First World War, designing tanks and airships. Eventually, exhausted by his travels he retired to write his autobiography in Florence, where he died in 1924.