Collection Guide
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Cruikshank (George), An Essay on the Genius of
MS.1917.002
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Table of contents
Contributing Institution:
William Andrews Clark Memorial Library
Title: An Essay on the Genius of George Cruikshank
Identifier/Call Number: MS.1917.002
Physical Description:
1.46 Linear Feet
(7 bound volumes)
Date (inclusive): 1808-1877
Abstract: "An Essay on the Genius of George Cruikshank by W.M. Thackeray; and additional memoirs by Hamilton, Stephens, Wilson, Bates
and others" is in seven volumes dating from 1808 to 1877. The collection was purchased by William Andrews Clark from George
M. Millard in 1917. The books are bound in green morocco by Rivière. The compiler is unidentified; John B. Gough (1817-1886),
an eminent collector of Cruikshankiana, is possibly the creator.
Physical Location: Clark Library
Language of Material:
English
.
Collection is open for research.
The Clark Library owns the property rights to its collections but does not hold the copyright to these materials and therefore
cannot grant or deny permission to use them. Researchers are responsible for determining the copyright status of any materials
they may wish to use, investigating the owner of the copyright, and obtaining permission for their intended publication or
other use. In all cases, you must cite the Clark Library as the source with the following credit line: The William Andrews
Clark Memorial Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
[Identification of item], An Essay on the Genius of George Cruikshank, MS.1917.002, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library,
University of California, Los Angeles.
The collection was purchased by William Andrews Clark from George M. Millard in 1917. A detailed inventory written by Millard
is available in the Clark Library's Institutional Archive.
The volumes and their contents are listed in The Library of William Andrews Clark, Jr. "Cruikshank and Dickens. In Two Parts.
Part I: Cruikshank; Part II: Dickens." Collated and compiled by Robert Ernest Cowan and William Andrews Clark, Jr. San Francisco:
Printed by John Henry Nash, 1921, p. 64-70.
Publication information and expanded content description by Margaret Phung, June 2009.
The artist George Cruikshank was born in London in 1792. He is often considered a humorist, satirist and caricaturist of British
political and social life. His father Isaac Cruikshank (1756-1811) also worked as an artist and engraver, and it is he who
encouraged and nurtured the talent of his son from an early age. George Cruikshank died in London in 1878.
"An Essay on the Genius of George Cruikshank by W.M. Thackeray; and additional memoirs by Hamilton, Stephens, Wilson, Bates
and others" is in seven volumes dating from 1808 to 1877. The collection was purchased by William Andrews Clark from George
M. Millard in 1917. The books are bound in green morocco by Rivière. The compiler is unidentified; John B. Gough (1817-1886),
an eminent collector of Cruikshankiana, is possibly the compiler.
The artwork featured in this volume includes original pen and pencil sketches; woodcuts, wood engravings, steel engravings,
etchings and lithographs by Cruikshank. A majority of these prints consist of title pages to various publications, in addition
to illustrations created for chapbooks, original wrappers, magazines, pamphlets and books. Each volume includes a frontispiece
portrait of Cruikshank, except the sixth volume with Cruikshank's original autograph on the frontispiece and his portrait
following the volume's title page. A written memoir on George Cruikshank by Frederic G. Stephens (1828-1907) and William Bates
(d. l884) immediately follows the title pages in Volumes III and IV.
Of particular note is a series of plates titled The Bottle (1848), The Drunkard's Children (1848), and The Drunkard's House
(1860), which portray moralistic stories on the negative effects of alcoholism while demonstrating Cruikshank's allegiance
to the Temperance movement. Numerous prints from other series, such as My Sketch Book (1833-1836), Bentley's Miscellany (1837-1843)
and The Comic Almanack (1835-1853) are included. Additionally, illustrations to Oliver Twist (1838) and Sketches by Boz (1839)
by Charles Dickens, Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe, and fairy tales such as Jack and the Beanstalk (1854),
are just several of the many published works featuring the artwork of George Cruikshank that were selected for inclusion in
this collection.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Artists -- England -- 19th century
Festschriften -- 19th century.
Caricatures -- 19th century
Temperance in art.
Social history -- 19th century.