George Cruikshank
George Cruikshank (✦1792 – †1878) was a British caricaturist and book illustrator, praised as the "modern Hogarth" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend Charles Dickens, and many other authors, reached an international audience.
Cruikshank replaced one of his major influences, James Gillray, as England's most popular satirist. In his lifetime he created nearly 10,000 prints, illustrations, and plates. There are collections of his works in the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Life
Cruikshank was born on 27 September 1792 in London. His father, Isaac Cruikshank, was one of the leading caricaturists of the late 1790s and Cruikshank started his career as his father's apprentice and assistant.
His older brother, Isaac Robert, also followed in the family business as a caricaturist and illustrator. Cruikshank's early work was caricature; but in 1823, at the age of 31, he started to focus on book illustration. He illustrated the first, 1823 English translation (by Edgar Taylor and David Jardine) of Grimms' Fairy Tales published in two volumes as German Popular Stories.
On 16 October 1827, he married Mary Ann Walker (1807–1849). Two years after her death, on 7 March 1851, he married Eliza Widdison.
Cruikshank developed palsy in later life, and his health and work began to decline in quality. He died on 1 February 1878. Upon his death, it was discovered that Cruikshank had fathered 11 illegitimate children with a mistress named Adelaide Attree, his former servant, who lived close to where he lived with his wife.
Spanking art by Cruikshank
"The Point of Honour" (1825), flogging of a sailor at the Royal Navy.
"February - Cutting Weather. A typical day at Dr Swishtail's Academy." From The Comic Almanack for 1839.
See also
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