Four Hundred Humorous Illustrations, Vol. 2 (of 2): With Portrait and Biographical Sketch
General
Four Hundred Humorous Illustrations, Vol. 2 (of 2): With Portrait and Biographical Sketch
English wit and humor, Pictorial
However, to return to the affairs of the family. In time the brother
Isaac Robert having got married, the whole family removed to King
Street, Holborn. Soon afterwards the mother, George, and sister took a
house in Claremont Square, Pentonville, at that period partially in the
country. Later on, becoming married. George removed to Amwell Street,
where he remained for thirty years. He afterwards resided in several
suburban localities, but finally settled down at 263 Hampstead Road,
where he died on the 1st of February, 1878, and in the following
November his remains were finally deposited in the crypt of St. Paul's
Cathedral.
In person Cruikshank was a broad-chested man, rather below the middle
height, with a high forehead, blue-grey eyes, a hook nose, and a pair of
strong whiskers. In his younger days he had been an adept at boxing and
all manly sports, as also an enthusiastic volunteer, ultimately becoming
lieutenant-colonel of the 48th Middlesex Volunteers. He preserved his
energy almost to the last day of his life. Even at eighty he was ready
to dance a hornpipe, or sing a song, "he was," says one who knew him
well, "a light hearted, merry, jolly old gentleman, full physically
of humorous action and impulsive gesture, but in every word and deed a
God-fearing, queen-honouring, truth-loving, honest man."
The old school of caricaturists in which the names of Gilray,
Rowlandson, Woodward, and Bunbury are most prominent, was noted chiefly
for the broad, and in many cases, vulgar treatment of the subjects which
were dealt with. The later school of caricaturists, in their mode
of treating similar subjects, differed considerably from their
predecessors. The leading member of the new school was George
Cruikshank. He lived and worked during two generations, and may be
considered as the connecting link between the old school and the new.
At first Cruikshank to some extent followed Gilray and Rowlandson, but
gradually fell off from their style of art, and in its stead produced
work of a more serious and more artistic nature, which was the beginning
of a new era in the history of caricature. His illustrations to
innumerable works are of the highest order, and have made for him an
everlasting reputation.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Four Hundred Humorous Illustrations,
Vol 2 (of 2), by George Cruikshank
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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