Austen henry lanyard biography of albert

Austen henry lanyard biography of albert: He was born to a mostly

The Layard family returned to England in After the death of his father in , Layard entered the law firm of his uncle but was unable to settle into a legal career. They travelled together overland as far as Iran then Persia , parting company on 20 August Mitford carried on to Sri Lanka. Meanwhile Layard spent the next couple of years alternating between Baghdad and life among the Bakhtiari people, who live in the mountainous region which now forms the modern border between Iran and Iraq.

In Canning dispatched Layard to seek out the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Nineveh. Between and Layard excavated the cities of Nimrud and Nineveh, sending many of the artefacts back to England and into the collection of the British Museum. Layard was the British Ambassador to Spain — and Turkey — In he retired to his house in Venice, Ca' Capello, with his wife Enid whom he had married in A Trustee of the National Gallery from , Layard was a keen art historian and a collector of early Italian art.

He died in London on 5 July Layard bequeathed the bulk of his art collection to the National Gallery, leaving a life interest to his wife who continued to live in Venice.