Born in Bloomsbury in 1792, George Cruikshank would illustrate everyday life in England, political issues, calendars,
his own magazine, theatre backdrops, and
numerous books.
- Pierce Egan, Life in London, 1821. It was a serial,
and it sold so fast the manual colorists (hand copiers) could
not keep up (3).
- M. J. Whitty, Tales of Irish Life, 1824. This was
translated into German and French (4).
- Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom's Cabin, 1852.
- Bürger, Münchhausen, Tegg, 1867.
- Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote, Effingham Wilson,
1833.
- Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, John Major, 1831.
- Charles Dickens:
- Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, German Popular Stories (Snow-White
and Hansel and Gretel), Baldwin, 1823.
Etchings for pamphleteer William Hone, 1820s.
"George Cruikshank was a humorist of the school of Hogarth, and is
considered by some to be one of the best that Britain has produced" (2).
Yet his humor, as well as much of the humor of his age, lacks the timeless
quality of Shakespeare. His technique, however, remains seen as
excellent.
Money of England
Georgie-Porgie, as well as many other
contemporaries, noted (5) that English currency was
trivial to counterfeit. The Crown had a blast hanging
people for passing the notes, often unknowingly,
and many felt that was not in the English people's best interests.
Our hero designed note-look-alikes that satirized the
text on them; they were printed by William Hone.
The practice ended the death penalty for minor currency offenses.
(6) As he writes in his own words, "After that, there was not any more
hanging or punishmeant of death for minor offences" (7) of any kind.
Poor.
In 1866, John Ruskin had to lend him serious money. Overall,
his financial state was not very good, but he did what he loved.
He later relied on a small pension from the government and a school where
he learned to oil paint, the Academy School.
Footnotes
- http://www.ricochet-jeunes.org/eng/biblio/illus/cruikshank.html
- http://www.speel.demon.co.uk/artists2/cruik.htm
- http://www.artsci.washington.edu/drama-phd/dbegan1.html
- http://www.pgil-eirdata.org/html/pgil_datasets/authors/w/Whitty,MJ/life.htm
- Pun intended: They noticed something about notes of currency!
- http://www.money.org/cruikshank.html
- http://www.money.org/gcarticle.jpg