n / / // English Graphic Satire AND ITS RELATION TO DIFFERENT STYLES OF Painting, Sculpture, mid Engraving A CONTRIBUTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH SCHOOL OF ART THE NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS SELECTED AND DRAWN FROM THE ORIGINALS BY ROBERT WILLIAM BUSS J3ainttr, gesifln^r, anb (gtchcr AND REPRODUCED BY PHOTO-LITHOGRAPHY PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR BY VIRTUE & CO. For Private Circulation only 1874 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/englishgraphicsaOObuss DEDICATION. J IV Engla)id it has been, and still is, customary to dedicate, or to inscribe a new production of the pen to Somebody ; that So?nebody being most frequently a royal, noble, wealthy, or learned personage. But in the present day " a change has come d' er the scene. This magnificent Somebody has now in a great measure given way to the more humble but affectionate friend of the author, selected from the circle of those most dear to him—a custom so fraught with affection I deem worthy of imitation. My " Somebody'''' I therefore select from that small but dear circle formed by my own children; and I dedicate this work on English Graphic Satire to my only daughter, Frances Mary. From an early period she has shared my hopes and fears while ^ ' an arduous and uncertainly re?nunerated profession. book, whatever may be its merits or dejjierits, would ' ' I. It ivas ' Dear Faniiy ' who, foremost among a Philadelphia Museum of Art hid and admiring friends, urged 7ne to commence the I VIC on to its completio)i. Therefore to her belongs LIBRARY V and affectionately comprised in a dedication, al combination of talent and energy she has ivon for 'able position as an educator. I join my hopes, with IS and attached friends, that her useful life may be at she may be graiited health to enjoy it. Gift of William H. Helfand ROBERT WILLIAM BUSS. 'amden Towrt, London, June 874. PREFATORY AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS. ^^^C HIS Essay differs materially from other works similar 1^1^ in title, and with apparently a similar object. The ^^^^l difference consists in the fact, that I have not included ^^^'^ political history in my view of the progress of Graphic Satire in England ; nor have I entered upon the antiquarian ground so ably occupied by other writers on this subject. I consider Graphic Satire, or, in the ordinary sense of the term. Caricature, as an important branch of the Fine Arts in this country, however contemptuously an art so popular may be regarded by some inconsiderate critics. Nor can the history and progress of the English school of art be complete without much more than a mere mention, or slight notice of Satiric Art. I believe no work upon the history of art in England com- prehends any notice whatever of the efforts of artists in Caricature whose talents and energies have at various times exercised a powerful influence on public opinion—indeed, far more so than the works by professors of the grand style of art in their mightiest efforts. Henry Fuseli, a Royal Academician, professor of painting and teacher of drawing at the Royal Academy of England, an undoubtedly great artist, lived with his head so high up in the clouds of poetic and heroic art, that in his lectures on the English vi PREFATORY AM> EXPLANATORY REMARKS. school he scarcely condescended to notice an artist of such world- wide renown as William Hogarth ! The notice he does give of this great painter is in dispraise of his works, speaking of them as — " low and vulgar " mere chronicles of scandal ! It is curious to mark the contrast of public estimation of j works by Fuseli and by Hogarth. Fuseli's works are so repulsive 1 to the general taste that, with all his learning and talent, no picture of his has a place on the walls of our National Gallery. On the other hand, Hogarth and his pictures (he was also a caricaturist) are as household gods to the public, and of all English artists he is the one most known and most esteemed on the Continent and in the New World. Numerous volumes of criticism have been written upon the great dramatic pictures of this truly English painter, whose works have been described by all our celebrated essayists since his time. But Caricature, although o{ humbler pretensions to art than the works of Hogarth or of England's historical painters, surely deserves some notice. Therefore, as this popular branch of art is disregarded by writers on the English school, the present little work seeks to give this phase of art some consideration. Its object is also to show how Graphic Satire has descended from antiquity to a thoroughly appreciative age in a free country like England, what materials caricaturists had to work with, how those materials were most felicitously employed, how ancient bequests of art have been most ingeniously adapted by modern artists, and how they have superadded invention, composition, light and shade, and a power of drawing far superior to the efforts of the caricaturists of antiquity. Caricature has so wide a range that there is no mode of execu- tion in art that has not at one time or other been employed un it. These various modes of executing caricatures I endeavour to explain, and I give, wherever it is practicable, a fac-simile of the artist's work, line for line, dot for dot. Thus it will be evident that this work differs essentially from all those whose object PREFATORY AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS. vii is simply to illustrate • political events by means of outlines from designs by our celebrated caricaturists. I view the art of Caricature from an artist's stand-point, and criticise efforts in it by the same rules as guide us in our judg- ment of pictures or drawings for, after all. Caricature is ; really the slighter exercise of art by men whose more elabo- rated works have been, and are, dulv chronicled in the annals of art. In some cases the peculiar gift of a perception of the ludicrous may induce a painter in oil or water-colours to devote more of his attention to comic and slight productions of the pencil or etching-- needle than to pictures. Such is the case with Hogarth, Gillray, George Cruikshank, John Doyle, John Leech, and our present comic artists. This view of the art of Caricature, or " English Comic and Satiric Art," I held many years ago, and, in order to help in popu- larizing it and explaining its art-principles, I prepared a series of four lectures, illustrated by three hundred examples selected from works by our most celebrated Graphic Satirists. These examples were drawn by my own hand on cartoons, each measuring between six and seven feet. There were sixty of these cartoons, which, passing over rollers, were thus displayed behind a hand- some portable frame. The illustrations, being of a large size, were visible to a numerous audience. To avoid confusion in the subjects, all the speeches supposed to be uttered by the intro- duced figures were omitted. The success of these lectures was great, as I had engage- ments at almost every literary and scientific institution in London, its suburbs, and the principal towns in the provinces. Amongst the most gratifying results of my lectures was the fact that they secured me many excellent friends wherever I visited, and that the recollection of my lectures still dwells in their memory. These kind friends have recently urged me to re-deliver my viii PREFATORY AND EXPLANATORY REMARKS. lectures on " English Comic and Satiric Art," now that the mere lapse of time would impart a novelty to the subject. The weight of years and failing health, however, compelled me to decline an invitation so kindly given ; for only those who have travelled hundreds of miles single handed, with two large unwieldy and heavy packing-cases, on a lecturing tour, can appreciate the fatigue and distress of mind caused by the delay, ignorance, inso- lence, and blundering of railway servants, and of stupid country carriers. Nevertheless, a grateful feeling to my excellent friends for repeatedly expressed kindness in regard to my lectures has induced me so far to meet their wishes as to put together in this unpretending book the substance of the four lectures alluded to. Since the delivery of them—more than twenty years ago—changes have taken place. Death has been seriously busy amongst our comic artists ; new aspirants have arisen, and new processes in the arts of engraving and printing have been invented. These changes are described in the present form of my lectures. Again, the greatly reduced size of the illustrations consequent upon the book-form, has enabled me, in numerous instances, to give, by the aid of photography, reproductions of the original caricatures with the utmost fidelity. The process here employed is called photo-lithography. A photographic negative picture is taken from any painting, print, drawing, or original object, and then superposed on a film of gelatine prepared with bichromate of potash, and exposed to the action of light. By a delicate chemical manipulation this film of gelatine is made fit to be transferred to a lithographic stone. That done, the work is nothing more than ordinar)' lithographic printing. The ink, being the usual printer's ink, remains abso- lutely permanent ; consequently all fear of fading, or sulphurizing, an occurrence too frequent with prints taken upon salts of silver by the usual photographic method, is removed. To produce even such a book as the present one would involve a very large sum of money for the illustrations only.