Introduction WITH civilization so topsy-turvy with called caricatures. Political caricatures conflict, with social catastrophe already naturally did not develop until after printing bruising our heels, our artists can no longer was invented and rapid circulation of ma- afford to dafwdle with the trivial or flirt with terial could be realized. It is interesting to the inane. They cannot afford to dream note the growth of the genre. The earliest when action is so imperative. Nor can they caricature (or as today called cartoon) is a afford to prettify the nebulous, when the French engraving that dates back to 1499, real is so drastic and forbidding. in which Louis XII is depicted playing cards If art is to become other than an amuse- with the Doge of Venice and the Swiss ruler, ment for the fatigued merchant, the tired while the other rulers of Europe are forced flapper, and the jaded libertine, it must rise to look on. In the seventeenth century cari- from the individual to the social, and en- catures multiplied. One of the most amus- deavor to attain a revolutionary beauty ing and at the same time bitter, is that in- commensurate with radical vision and as- spired by the Protestants who fled to Eng- piration. Art must have social purpose and land after the edict of Nantes had been re- plan. voked in 1685—the caricature consisted of The cartoon is a form of art that imme- twenty-four hideous faces grotesquely simi- diately lends itself to social interpretation. lar to the ministers and courtiers of Louis. The cartoon, in fact, has become an active In England the bourgeois was frequently expression of contemporary civilization. It caricatured by the artists of the aristocracy. has developed into a medium of comment One of these caricatures representing "The and criticism that is essential to our cul- High Court of Justice, or Oliver's Slaughter ture. The cartioon represents a kind of House," is especially clever and memorable. snap-shot logic that often is sharper than In 1710 in the notorious proceedings against words, and more effective than argument. Dr. Sacheverell, caricature became a salient A philosophy is captured in a flash of lines weapon. It was at this time that the word or scorned with a simple gesture. In brief, "caricature" came into common use. the cartoon speaks a language that is direct, Hogarth and Cruikshank were the leaders pithy and dramatic. of the bourgeois satirists in their effort to In these days of modern psychology the use caricature for the moral ends of the importance of the emotions in forming bourgeoisie. In America, Thomas Nast was judgments and confirming conclusions has the famous political cartoonist. Defending been amply demonstrated. Cartoons have the Republican party during the Civil War an immediate effect upon the emotional and attacking Tammany afterwards, Nast process. They can by their directness of was important in making the cartoon popu- presentation agitate, propagandize and in- lar in the United States. Puck, Judge and spire. They give emotional tonus to intel- then Life followed with cartoons as one of lectual attitudes. They give spirit to logic, their central attractions. It was Life mag- reason to tactics. azine that, for instance, discovered the work These cartoons are cartoons of social of Charles Dana Gibson. meaning and economic significance. They In England, Max Beerbohm chalked a are conceived in the spirit of the class strug- change in the attitude of the cartoonist. gle and devoted to the definite purpose of Beerbohm was the Sinclair Lewis of car- class propaganda. Despite the canine ulula- toonery. Instead of playing up the bour- tions of the bourgeois critics, the artistic geoisie as had his predecessors, in particu- clarity and f orcef ulness of these cartoons do lar Hogarth and Cruickshank, he satirized it. not suffer as a consequence. On the other But Beerbohm's caricatures had more of fun hand, the animus that motivated their crea- than earnestness about them, more of mis- tion seems to have infused them with chievous contempt than of deep hatred. emotion molten in intensity and magnificent The proletarian cartoonist is a new figure in sweep. to emerge. In the attitude of the radical Such collections as the Red Cartoons of cartoonists of today there is firm-set reali- 1926 and 1927 are, after all, a development zation that the time for playful piquancies in the cartoon genre that has come only is past, and that pictorial satire and exposure after numerous evolutions in its substance. must be undertaken in profound serious- The word cartoon is derived from the Ital- ness. Red Cartoons bears out this fact with ian "cartone," which means pasteboard, and unequivocal emphasis. The absurdities and the real cartoon, according to its original injustices of a class-strangled society must character, is a large picture in fresco, oil or not be twisted into form evocative of laugh- tapestry. It served as the model of the fin- ter, but revealed with candor productive of ished work. The word cartoon was not em- ployed until 1843, when a large exhibition hatred. of real cartoons was held in Westminster In this form, then, Red Cartoons has Hall, from which selections were made of social power and revolutionary significance. the designs for the decoration in the fresco Its purpose is at once challenge and inspira- of the new houses of parliament. What are tion. now known as cartoons were originally V. P. CALVERTON.