In the conclusion to the biography of the caricaturist and illustrator George Cruikshank, Robert Patten narrates the second half of the artist's long career.
In the conclusion to the biography of the caricaturist and illustrator George Cruikshank, Robert Patten narrates the second half of the artist's long career. It is an examination of Cruikshank's cooperations with some of the writers who are known as remakers of British fiction, particularly Harrison Ainsworth, Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray. Patten also examines Cruikshank's illustrated periodicals, especially the Comic Almernack, which preceded Punch, and which contains an invaluable record of three decades of London life in the artist's hundreds of etchings. Beginning in 1847, Cruikshank became a leading advocate of Temperance, producing two dramatic series of prints, a gigantic oil painting, and many other forms of propaganda. Patten provides the fullest account ever of Cruikshank's many friendships and contextualises his art, showing how the subjects, mediums, treatments, publishers and audiences affected the artist's productions. He is especially good at elucidating Dickens' very public quarrel with Cruikshank, a quarrel that severed twenty years of friendship. The artist's friendship with John Ruskin, who became for a time Cruikshank's patron and champion, is also illuminated by Patten. Cruikshank's later years were not successful either artistically or financially. He was bedevilled by economic crisis, inadequate commissions, and the upkeep of two households - one with his second wife and the other with his mistress and ten children. This volume of the biography foregrounds the changing image of the artist, as he refashioned himself and is refashioned by others to suit or to offend Victorian sensibilities. The intertwining of charity and art, Temperance and propaganda, children's imagination and adult's criticism, Scots heritage and English propriety, complicated and confused Cruikshank's declining years. Patten's engaging and energetic narrative sorts out the contradictory impulses within Cruikshank's life, times and art. This title is named as the Best Biography of the '90s by "The Guardian". Also available in this series is: "Volume I: 1792-1835"
Recenzijas
1. "Robert Patten, in his two-volume George Cruikshank's Life, Times, and Art, creates an authoritative source for the new century." - Catherine J.Golden in Victorian Studies, Vol. 40, No.4, Summer, 1997, pp. 680-682
2. "Bob Patter's second volume on George Cruikshank has all the virtues of the first: immense detail about Cruikshank's life, incisive analysis of his art, intelligent treatment of historical context, and a fine number and choices of illustrations - reproduced more satisfactorily than some of the caricatures in volume one." - Michael Steig in Dickens Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 2, June, 1997, pp. 118-122
Papildus informācija
In the conclusion to the biography of the caricaturist and illustrator George Cruikshank, Robert Patten narrates the second half of the artist's long career. It is an examination of Cruikshank's cooperations with some of the writers who are known as remakers of British fiction, particularly Harrison Ainsworth, Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray. Patten also examines Cruikshank's illustrated periodicals, especially the Comic Almernack, which preceded Punch, and which contains an invaluable record of three decades of London life in the artist's hundreds of etchings. Beginning in 1847, Cruikshank became a leading advocate of Temperance, producing two dramatic series of prints, a gigantic oil painting, and many other forms of propaganda. Patten provides the fullest account ever of Cruikshank's many friendships and contextualises his art, showing how the subjects, mediums, treatments, publishers and audiences affected the artist's productions. He is especially good at elucidating Dickens' very public quarrel with Cruikshank, a quarrel that severed twenty years of friendship. The artist's friendship with John Ruskin, who became for a time Cruikshank's patron and champion, is also illuminated by Patten. Cruikshank's later years were not successful either artistically or financially. He was bedevilled by economic crisis, inadequate commissions, and the upkeep of two households - one with his second wife and the other with his mistress and ten children. This volume of the biography foregrounds the changing image of the artist, as he refashioned himself and is refashioned by others to suit or to offend Victorian sensibilities. The intertwining of charity and art, Temperance and propaganda, children's imagination and adult's criticism, Scots heritage and English propriety, complicated and confused Cruikshank's declining years. Patten's engaging and energetic narrative sorts out the contradictory impulses within Cruikshank's life, times and art. Named as the 'Best Biography of the '90s' by The Guardian.
Illustrations Preface: To the Reader Acknowledgements Chronology Prologue Phase 1: "Cradled in Caricature," 1792-1820 1 What's in a Name? 2 All My Relatives Were Scots 3 A Naughty Boy 4 A Picture of Fife 5 What Can You Do, If Your Pelvis is Wrong? 6 George Cruikshank Invenit 7 Too Much Fun of Too Many Things 8 The Pursuit and Torment of "Little Boney" 9 "Twit, Twittle, Twit": The Trials of William Hone 10 The Most Important Design I Ever Made 11 The Dandy of Sixty 12 A Very Tar in Art Phase 2: "The Finest Things, Next To Rembrandt's," 1820-1835 13 Late Hours, Blue Ruin, and Dollies 14 Epigrams of Design 15 A Thorough-bred Artist 16 A Sketching Dante 17 To Work - "With a Will" 18 A Work Begun in Sadness 19 Indestructible as Punch 20 Thumbnail Designs 21 An "Average-European" Style 22 Drawing in Albums 23 Prince of Humorous Designers 24 The Arch and Able Pencil Genealogies Concerning Transcriptions and References Notes General Index Index of Cruikshank's Works
Robert L. Patten is the Lynette S. Autrey Professor Emeritus of Humanities at Rice University, and writes primarily about Victorian literature, graphic arts, and print culture, including multiple books about Charles Dickens.
