Celebrated British Caricaturists 1697-1878 This list includes both British born artists and those who were born somewhere else but did the majority of their most essential sketches in the U.K. The assortment is listed in chronological order by date of birth. William Hogarth (1697 - 1764) He was born in London and studied with an engraver where he practiced his trade. He became a painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and leader cartoonist and has been accredited with originating sequential drawing or the cartoon strip. His work varied from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like sequences of pictures called "contemporary moral topics". His most well-known works are no doubt “The Harlot’s Progress" and “The Rake’s Progress”. Isaac Cruickshank ( 1756 - 1811) Cruickshank was a Scottish painter and caricaturist who was born in Edinburgh. Cruikshank's first known publications were etchings of Edinburgh "types" in 1784. His water colours were put on show, but in order to make a living wage, it was discovered that it was more profitable to make prints and caricatures. He was responsible in part for developing the figure of John Bull, the nationalistic representation of a decent British yeoman. Isaac Cruikshank was a contemporary of James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson, and he was part of what has been referred to as "the Golden Age of British Caricature. Thomas Rowlandson ( 1756 - 1827) Thomas Rowlandson was an English painter and caricaturist. He was born in London and when he left school he learned at the Royal Academy. He was thought of as a promising student and if he had maintained his early application he would have made his name as a painter. But he inherited GBP7,000 from a French aunt and plunged into the distractions of the town (he was known to sit at the gambling-table for 36 hours at a time). He quickly wasted his bequest but the friendship and examples of James Gillray and Henry William Bunbury seem to have suggested caricature as a way of filling his stomach and purse. He also produced a series of erotic prints and woodcuts, lots of which would nowadays be considered pornographic. James Gillray (1757 - 1815)
James Gillray was a British caricaturist and printmaker who achieved immense fame for his etched political and social satires, chiefly printed between 1792 and 1810. Some of his most widely known caricatures were targetted at at the Royal Family and George III in particular. He is also accountable for almost certainly the most wellknown political cartoon of all time. It was entitled “The Plum Pudding in Danger’. It was printed in 1805 and shows Pitt and Napoleon dividing up the plum pudding of Europe. By 1811, madness, no doubt exacerbated by his intemperate life-style, was overtaking him and he passed away in 1815. George Cruickshank ( 1792 - 1878) George Cruickshank was born in London, the son of the famous caricaturist Isaac Cruickshank and started his working life as trainee to his father. He later started as a caricaturist in his own right and was even paid GBP 100 in return for a undertaking not to caricature George IV In later life he turned to book illustrating and illustrated “Sketches by Boz” and “Oliver Twist” for Charles Dickens. After suffering from palsy he died in 1878. Punch, in his obituary, said “There never was a purer, simpler, more straightforward or altogether more blameless man. His nature had something childlike in its transparency." Owen Jones, the author of this article writes on many subjects but is currently concerned with Kitty Cannon 3. If you would like to read more, please go over to our web site entitled Kitten Cannon 3.