George Cruikshank was born in London on
27th September, 1792. His father, Isaac
Cruikshank, was a caricaturist who died as a result of his alcoholism
in 1811. After a brief education at an elementary school in Edgeware,
Cruikshank set himself up as a caricaturist in London. An early influence
on Cruikshank was James Gillray, Britain's
leading caricaturist at the time.
Cruikshank was soon selling his drawings to over twenty different
printsellers. This included a large caricature that appeared in each
issue of William Jones's satirical magazine, The
Scourge. These early drawings included attacks on the royal
family and leading politicians such as Lord
Castlereagh and Lord Sidmouth.
This drawing was produced by George Cruikshank
in 1811. The four men
from left to right are William Jones, the publisher of The Scourge,
George
Cruikshank, William Hone and George Cruikshank's
brother, Robert.
George Cruikshank, like
many people, was deeply shocked by the Peterloo
Massacre on 16th August, 1819. Cruikshank responded to this event
by produced one of his most powerful drawings, Massacre
at St. Peter's.
In 1818 George Cruikshank joined forces with Radical publisher and
bookseller, William Hone, who was playing
a leading role in the campaign against the Gagging
Acts. In their struggle for press freedom, the two men
produced The Political House
that Jack Built. Hone later recalled
he got the idea while reading the House
That Jack Built
to his four-year-old daughter. The 24 page pamphlet contained political
nursery rhymes written by Hone and twelve illustrations by Cruikshank.
The
Political House That Jack Built
was an immediate success selling over 100,000 copies in a few months.
The two men followed this success with a series of political pamphlets
including The
Queen's Matrimonial Ladder
(1819) and The
Man in the Moon
(1820). In August 1821 the two men produced a mock newspaper, A
Slap at Slop. Slop
was Hone's name for John Stoddart, a former radical who had become
the conservative editor of The Times.
A Slap at Stop was illustrated by twenty-six wood engravings, including
several on the subject of the Peterloo Massacre.
Cruikshankdid
not hold strong political beliefs and was willing to produce anti-radical
prints for Tory booksellers like George
Humphrey. This included Death and
Liberty, a warning of the dangers that Radicals posed to the
British Constitution and The Female Reformers
of Blackburn, an attack on women becoming involved in politics.
In September 1819 Cruikshank produced a Radical
Reformer, a print that illustrated the threat of a French
style revolution.
Illustration
from A Slap at Slop (1821)
Cruikshank appears to have
lost interest in politics in the 1820s and began to concentrate on
theatrical caricatures and book illustrations. In 1836 Cruikshank
met Charles Dickens
and the two men worked on several projects together. Cruikshank illustrated
Sketches by Boz (1836) and Oliver
Twist (1838) and also supplied the drawings for Bentley's
Miscellany, a journal edited by Dickens.
Like many artists, Cruikshank was unhappy about the changes that had
resulted from the Industrial Revolution. In one print, London
Going Out of Town - On the March of Bricks & Mortar
(1829), Cruikshank attacked the building of houses on the green
fields of Islington. In another print The
Horses 'Going to the Dogs' (1829)
he showed his dislike of the steam carriage that had been invented
by Goldsworthy Gurney.
Cruikshank was a strong supporter of the Temperance
Society and in 1847 produced The Bottle
which sold almost 100,000 copies and The
Drunkard's Children (1848). Cruikshank also became involved
in the movement to protect children and published several books on
the subject including A Slice of Bread and
Butter (1857) and Our
Gutter Children (1869). George
Cruikshank
died on 1st February, 1878.
The Radical
Reformer (September, 1819)
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