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CRUIKSHANK, GEORGE (1792–1878)

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Originally appearing in Volume V07, Page 524 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CRUIKSHANK, See also:GEORGE (1792–1878) , See also:English artist, caricaturist and illustrator, was See also:born in See also:London on the 27th of See also:September 1792. By natural disposition and See also:collateral circumstances he may be accepted as the type of the born humoristic artist predestined for this See also:special See also:form of See also:art. His grandfather had taken up the arts, and his See also:father, See also:Isaac Cruikshank, followed the painter's profession. Amidst these surroundings the See also:children were born and brought up, their first playthings the materials of the arts their father practised. George followed the See also:family traditions with amazing facility, easily surpassing his compeers as an etcher. When the father died, about 1811, George, still in his teens, was already a successful and popular artist. All his acquisitions were native gifts, and of See also:home-growth; outside training, or the serious See also:apprenticeship to art, were dispensed with, under the See also:necessity of working for immediate profit. This lack of See also:academic training the artist at times found cause to regret, and at some intervals he made exertions to cultivate the knowledge obtainable by studying from the See also:antique and See also:drawing from See also:life at the See also:schools. From boyhood he was accustomed to turn his See also:artistic talents to ready See also:account, disposing of designs and etchings to the printsellers, and helping his father in forwarding his plates. Before he was twenty his spirited See also:style and See also:talent had secured popular recognition; the contemporary of See also:Gillray, See also:Rowlandson, Alken, See also:Heath, Dighton, and the established caricaturists of that See also:generation, he See also:developed See also:great proficiency as an etcher. Gillray's matured and trained skill had some See also:influence upon his executive See also:powers, and when the older caricaturist passed away in 1815, George Cruikshank had already taken his See also:place as a satirist. Prolific and dexterous beyond his competitors, for a generation he delineated Tories, Whigs and Radicals with See also:fine impartiality.

Satirical See also:

capital came to him from every public event,—wars abroad, the enemies of See also:England (for he was always fervidly patriotic), the See also:camp, the See also:court, the See also:senate, the See also:Church; See also:low life, high life; the humours of the See also:people, the follies of the great. In this wonderful See also:gallery the student may grasp the popular See also:side of most questions which for the See also:time being engaged public See also:attention. George Cruikshank's technical and manipulative skill as an etcher was such that See also:Ruskin and the best See also:judges have placed his productions in the foremost See also:rank; in this respect his See also:works have been compared favourably with the masterpieces of See also:etching. He died at 263 See also:Hampstead Road on the 1st of See also:February 1878. His remains See also:rest in St See also:Paul's See also:cathedral. A vast number of Cruikshank's spirited cartoons were published as See also:separate caricatures, all coloured by See also:hand; others formed See also:series, or were contributed to satirical magazines, the Satirist, See also:Town Talk, The See also:Scourge (1811–1816) and the like ephemeral publications. In See also:conjunction with See also:William See also:Hone's scathing tracts, G. Cruikshank produced See also:political satires to illustrate the series of facetiae and miscellanies, like The Political See also:House that See also:Jack Built (1819). Of a more genially humoristic See also:order are his well-known See also:book illustrations, now so deservedly esteemed for their inimitable fun and frolic, among other qualities, such as the weird and terrible, in which he excelled. See also:Early in this series came The Humorist (1819–1821) and Life in See also:Paris (1822). The well-known series of Life in London, conjointly produced by the See also:brothers I. R. and G.

Cruikshank, has enjoyed a prolonged reputation, and is still sought after by collectors. See also:

Grimm's Collection of See also:German Popular Stories (1824–1826), in two series, with 22 inimitable etchings, are in themselves sufficient to account for G. Cruikshank's reputation. To the first fourteen volumes (1837–1843) of See also:Bentley's See also:Miscellany Cruikshank contributed 126 of his best plates, etched on See also:steel, including the famous illustrations to See also:Oliver Twist, Jack See also:Sheppard, See also:Guy See also:Fawkes and The Ingoldsby Legends. For W. See also:Harrison See also:Ainsworth, Cruikshank illustrated Rookwood (1836) and The See also:Tower of London (184o); the first six volumes of Ainsworth's See also:Magazine (1842–1844) were illustrated by him with several of his finest suites of etchings. For C. See also:Lever's See also:Arthur O'Leary he supplied 10 full-See also:page etchings (1844), and 20 spirited graphic etchings for See also:Maxwell's lurid See also:History of the Irish See also:Rebellion in 1798 (1845). Of his own speculations, mention must be made of George Cruikshank's See also:Omnibus (1841) and George Cruikshank's Table Book (1845), as well as his Comic Almanack (1835–1853). The Life of See also:Sir See also:John Falstaff contained 20 full-page etchings (1857–1858). These are a few leading items amongst the thousands of illustrations emanating from that fertile See also:imagination. As an enthusiastic teetotal See also:advocate, G.

Cruikshank produced a See also:

long series of pictures and illustrations, pictorial See also:pamphlets and tracts; the best known of these are The See also:Bottle, 8 plates (1847), with its sequel, The Drunkard's Children, 8 plates (1848), with the ambitious See also:work, The See also:Worship of Bacchus, published by subscription after the artist's oil See also:painting, now in the See also:National Gallery, London, to which it was presented by his numerous admirers. See Cruikshank's See also:Water-See also:Colours, with introduction by See also:Joseph Grego (London, 1903). (J.

End of Article: CRUIKSHANK, GEORGE (1792–1878)

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