Skip to main content
Grolier Club Exhibitions

1800-1811: Young George’s Teachers; the Art of Collaboration

George Cruikshank: The Artist, the Humorist, and the Man, with Some Account of His Brother, Robert. A Critico-Biographical Essay. Illustrated Chiefly from Original Drawings by G. Cruikshank, in the Possession of the Author. By William Bates, B.A., R.C.S.E., Etc. Birmingham: Houghton and Hammond, 1878. Extra-illustrated.

This first edition has 263 additional engravings on copper, steel, and wood bound in. Most are by George, including some of his finest prints and two watercolors.

“The Triumphal Entry of the 100,000 (crown’)s or the lucky hit for e-o t-o p-o ho. and all the rest of the o’s.”

Foldout, hand-colored etching signed “IC” [Isaac Cruikshank]. [Published by S. W. Fores, 20 November 1791]. The Duke and Duchess of York entering London on the back of John Bull, the English taxpayer. The Duke, George III’s second son, had just married his cousin, daughter of King Frederick William II of Prussia, in Berlin. A second marriage was held at Buckingham Palace on 23 November 1791. Isaac Cruikshank (1764-1811), a highly skilled etcher and print-maker, was his sons’ principal teacher.

No.6.jpg
No.11.jpg

Eccentric Excursions or Literary & Pictorial Sketches of Countenance, Character & Country, in different parts of England & South Wales. Interspersed with Curious Anecdotes. Embellished with upwards of One Hundred Characteristic & Illustrative Prints. By G. M. Woodward. Engraved by Isaac Cruikshank. London: Published by Allen & Co. 15 Paternoster Row. 1796. First edition. Extra-Illustrated.

“Original watercolor drawing by George M. Woodward for print on page 103 within.”

No.12 .jpg
“Plate 43. Woodward, del. Cruikshank, sculp. [Isaac Cruikshank] London. Pubd. by Allen & West, 15, Paternoster Row, December 17, 1796.”

Hand-colored etching on page 103.

Most of the great caricaturists of the late 18th and early 19th c. were also skilled engravers and engraved for each other. Collaboration was the norm. See for example, the next two works where the illustrations of the first were designed by George Woodward and etched by Thomas Rowlandson, the second, published in the same year, where the roles of these two well-known artists were reversed.

Essay on the Art of Ingeniously Tormenting. A New Edition. Corrected, Revised and Illustrated with five Prints, from Designs by George M. Woodward, Esq.; etched by Th. Rowlandson. London: Printed by Thomas Tegg, 111, Cheapside. 1808.

Chesterfield Travestie; or School for Modern Manners. Embellished with Ten Caricatures. Engraved by Woodward from original Drawings by Rowlandson. London: Printed by T. Plummer, Seething-Lane, For Thomas Tegg, 111, Cheapside. 1808.

No.13.jpg

Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Containing Singular Travels, Campaign, Voyages, and Adventures. Also an Account of a Voyage to the Moon and Dog Star. Embellished with Numerous Engravings by Thomas Rowlandson. 1809. London: Printed for Thomas Tegg, No. 111, Opposite Bow Church, Cheapside.

Frontispiece.
No.15.jpg

The English Dance of Death, From the Designs of Thomas Rowlandson, with Metrical Illustrations. By the author of “Doctor Syntax” [William Combe]. London: Printed by J. Diggins, St. Ann’s Lane; Published at R. Ackermann’s Repository of Arts, 101, Strand. Two Volumes. 1815, 1816.

First book edition. 74 hand-colored aquatints with three additional hand-colored etchings before letters bound in. Originally published in parts. Rowlandson’s contemporary version of the late-medieval allegory on the universality of death. Extra-illustrated.

“In this world Our Comfort’s o’er, So let us find it at Death’s Door.” In two states.

Habits of New French Legislators and Other Public Functionaries, London. H. Humphrey, 1798. Album.

Series of 12 hand-colored, numbered plates drawn and etched by James Gillray, satirizing prominent Whigs who had supported the revolutionary goals of the French by dressing them in the official costumes of the Directoire designed by Jacques-Louis David.

New Pantheon of Democratic Mythology. London: H. Humphrey. May 7, 1799.

Set of hand-colored engraved title page and six hand-colored engravings, signed Js. Gillray, invt & ft. Published, May 7, 1799, by H. Humphrey, 27 St. James Street.

“The Military Caricaturist.” Pubd. Dec. 6th, 1799. By H. Humphrey, No. 27 St. James Street – London. Unsigned. [James Gillray]. Hand-colored etching.

The hapless subject of this print is identified as Thomas Davies (1737-1812), an army officer, amateur landscape artist and caricaturist, who is said to have criticized one of Gillray’s designs. Gillray is exacting his revenge.

No.17.jpg

“Maniac Ravings or Little Boney in a Strong Fit – Vide. Lord W___ account of a Visit to c/y Tuilleries.” Js Gillray invt & fect/Pubd May 24th 1803. By Js Gillray St James Street. Hand-colored etching.

A burlesque of Napoleon raving against England at a famous levée on 13 March 1803, when he reproached John Whitworth, then British Ambassador to Paris. The thoughts swirling from Napoleon’s head and the documents strewn around the room show Gillray’s detailed grasp of the political situation between France and England and of Britain’s internal politics at the time.

No.18.jpg

“The Affectionate Farewell or Kick for Kick.” London, R. Ackermann, 17 April, 1814. Unsigned [Thomas Rowlandson]. Hand-colored etching.

Talleyrand kicking Boney towards Elba with his heavy surgical shoe, raising his crutch to smite the fugitive.