Identity:

Henry Savage Landor was an artist and explorer.

Life:

Born in Florence, Landor studied portrait painting in Paris during the 1880s. He abandoned his studies in 1888 in order to travel the world although he continued to survive by painting. His travels took him to Japan, where he lived amongst the aboriginal Ainu, Korea and Tibet. This resulted in a number of books recording his experiences including Alone with the Hairy Ainu (1893), Corea, or Cho-sen, the Land of the Morning Calm (1895) and In the Forbidden Land (1898). Other expeditions took him to Nepal, China and Persia (now Iran). In 1892 Landor was elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.

Bibliography:

Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford, 2004, on-line edition (accessed 9 August 2004).