English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century. - How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times.

Graham Everitt

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of English Caricaturists and GraphicHumourists of the Nineteenth Century., by Graham EverittThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and withalmost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away orre-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License includedwith this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.orgTitle: English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of the Nineteenth Century.How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times.Author: Graham EverittRelease Date: February 6, 2010 [EBook #31195]Language: English*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLISH CARICATURISTS ***Produced by Marius Masi, Chris Curnow and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.netTranscriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected. They appear in the text like this, and theexplanation will appear when the mouse pointer is moved over the marked passage.ENGLISH CARICATURISTS. SOME OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.“At last we have a treatise upon our caricaturists and comic draughtsmenworthy of the great subject.... An entertaining history of caricature, andconsequently of the events, political and social, of the century; in fact, a thoroughlyreadable and instructive book.... And what a number of political occurrences,scandals public and private, movements political and secular, are passed inreview! All these events Mr. Everitt describes at length with great clearness andvivacity, giving ...

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• Publié par: anyi
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 26
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of English Caricaturists
and Graphic
Humourists of the Nineteenth Century., by Graham
Everitt
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no
cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it,
give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg
License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists of
the Nineteenth Century.
How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times.
Author: Graham Everitt
Release Date: February 6, 2010 [EBook #31195]
Language: English
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK
ENGLISH CARICATURISTS ***
Produced by Marius Masi, Chris Curnow and theProduced by Marius Masi, Chris Curnow and the
Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
Tra
nsc A few typographical errors have been correct
rib ed. They appear in the text like this, and the e
er' xplanation will appear when the mouse pointe
s n r is moved over the marked passage.
ote
:
ENGLISH CARICATURISTS.


SOME OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
“At last we have a treatise upon our caricaturists and
comic draughtsmen worthy of the great subject.... An
entertaining history of caricature, and consequently of
the events, political and social, of the century; in fact,
a thoroughly readable and instructive book.... And
what a number of political occurrences, scandals
public and private, movements political and secular,
are passed in review! All these events Mr. Everitt
describes at length with great clearness and vivacity,giving us a view of them, so to speak, from the
inside.”—Pall Mall Gazette.
“It is a handsome and important volume of 400 pages;
the letterpress being a brightly written commentary,
abounding with illustrative gossip, on the caricature of
the century and the merits of its graphic humourists....
It includes a great deal of the more stirring social and
political history of the time. The illustrations so
plentifully strewn through Mr. Everitt’s volume give it a
peculiar interest.”—St. James’s Gazette.
“The work, which contains a large amount of
information and some valuable lists of publications, is
illustrated with about seventy wood
engravings.”—Literary World.
“A real contribution to the history of the social life of
the century. The book is very fully and well illustrated,
forming in fact quite a gallery of nineteenth century
caricature.”—Truth.
“The plates with which it is illustrated are remarkably
well produced, and are useful in themselves, and are
neatly and clearly printed, so that they give a capital
idea of the originals from which they are
prepared.”—Saturday Review.
“Gives an elaborate estimate of the merits of the later
caricaturists and a complete account of their
lives.”—Graphic.

[Published 21st October, 1812, by S. W. Fores, 50,Piccadilly.
“A BUZ IN A BOX, OR THE POET IN A PET.”
Frontispiece.

English Caricaturists and Graphic Humourists
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
How they Illustrated and Interpreted their Times.
A Contribution to the History of Caricature from the
Time of the First Napoleon Down to the Death of John
Leech, in 1864.
BY
GRAHAM EVERITT.

SECOND EDITION.
London:
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO.
1893.

Butler & Tanner,
The Selwood Printing Works,
Frome, and London.PREFACE.
The only works which, so far as I know, profess to
deal with English caricaturists and comic artists of the
nineteenth century are two in number. The first is a
work by the late Robert William Buss, embodying the
substance of certain lectures delivered by the
accomplished author many years ago. Mr. Buss’s
book, which was published for private circulation only,
deals more especially with the work of James Gillray,
his predecessors and contemporaries, treating only
briefly and incidentally of a few of his successors of
our own day. The second is a work by Mr. James
Parton, an American author, whose book (published
by Harper Brothers, of New York) treats of
“Caricature, and other Comic Art in all Times and
many Lands.” It is obviously no part of my duty (even
if I felt disposed to do so) to criticise the work of a
brother scribe, and that scribe an American
gentleman. Covering an area so boundless in extent, it
is scarcely surprising that Mr. Parton should devote
only thirty of his pages to the consideration of English
caricaturists and graphic humourists of the nineteenth
century.
Under these circumstances, it would seem to me that,
in placing the present work before the public, an
apology will scarcely be considered necessary.
Depending oftentimes for effect upon overdrawing,
nearly always upon a graphic power entirely out of therange of ordinary art, the work of the caricaturist is not
to be measured by the ordinary standard of artistic
excellence, but rather by the light which it throws upon
popular opinion or popular prejudice, in relation to the
events, the remembrance of which it perpetuates and
chronicles. While, however, a latitude is allowed to the
caricaturist which would be inconsistent with the
principles by which the practice of art is ordinarily
governed, it may at the same time be safely laid down
that it is essential to the success of the comic designer
as well as the caricaturist, that both should be artists
of ability, though not necessarily men of absolute
genius.
It may be contended that Gillray, Rowlandson,
Bunbury, and others, although commencing work
before, are really quite as much nineteenth century
graphic satirists as their successors. This I admit; but
inasmuch as their work has been already described by
other writers, and the present book concerns itself
especially with those whose labours commenced after
1800, I have endeavoured to connect them with those
of their predecessors and contemporaries, without
unnecessarily entering into detail with which the reader
is supposed to be already more or less familiar.
I am in hopes that the character in which I am enabled
to present George Cruikshank as the leading
caricaturist of the century; the account I have given of
his hitherto almost unknown work of this character;
together with the view I have taken of the causes
which led to his sudden and unexampled declension in
the very midst of an artistic success almost
unprecedented, may prove both new and interesting tosome of my readers.
I have to acknowledge the assistance I have derived
from the 1864 and 1867 MS. diaries of the late Shirley
Brooks, kindly placed at my service by Cecil Brooks,
Esq., his son; my thanks are likewise due to Mr.
William Tegg for some valuable information kindly
rendered.
PREFACE TO THE PRESENT EDITION.
Having been called on to write a Preface to a popular
edition of this book, I seize the opportunity which is
now afforded me of correcting an error which occurred
in the original edition. By some unaccountable
accident the printer omitted my sub-title; and it was
not unnatural that some of my reviewers should
inquire why, in a work dealing with English
Caricaturists of the Nineteenth Century, no mention
should be made of the graphic humourists who
succeeded John Leech. This question is answered by
the restoration of the original title, from which it will be
seen that the work is simply “a contribution to the
history of caricature from the time of the first
Napoleon down to the death of John Leech, in 1864.”
To take in the later humourists, would be to carry the
work beyond the limits which I had originally assigned
to it.
One word more, and I have done. My intention in
writing this book was to show how the caricaturist
“illustrated” his time,—in other words, how he“interpreted” the social and political events of his day,
according to his own bias, or the views he was
retained to serve. While exhibiting him in the light of an
historian—which he most undoubtedly is—I had no
idea (as some of my too favourable critics seem to
have imagined) of writing a history of caricature itself.
For this task, indeed, I am not qualified, nor does it in
the slightest degree enlist my sympathy.
G. Everitt.
11th August, 1893.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Dr. Johnson’s definition of the word Caricatura.—
Francis Grose’s definition.—Modern signification of the
word.—Change in the Spirit of English Caricature
during the last Fifty Years.—Its Causes.—Gillray.—
Rowlandson.—Bunbury.—Influence of Gillray and
Rowlandson on their immediate Successors.—Gradual
Disappearance of the Coarseness of the Old
Caricaturists.—Change wrought by John Doyle.—We
have now no Caricaturist.—Effect of Wood Engraving
on Caricature.—Hogarth, although a Satirist, not a
Caricaturist.—Gustave Doré misdescribed a
Caricaturist.—Absurdity of comparing him with
Cruikshank.—“Etching Moralized.”
pp. 1-11.CHAPTER II.