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{{Short description|British caricaturist and book illustrator (1792–1878)}}
{{for multi|the American educator, newspaper editor and historian|George Cruikshank (editor)|other people|George Cruickshank (disambiguation)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2012}}

{{Infobox artist
| name          = George Cruikshank
| image         = George Cruikshank from NPG.jpg
| image_size    = 200px
| alt           =
| caption       = George Cruikshank, 1836
| birth_name    = <!--unneeded-->
| birth_date    = {{birth date|1792|9|27|df=y}}
| birth_place   = [[London]], England
| death_date    = {{death date and age|1878|2|1|1792|9|27|df=y}}
| death_place   = London, England
| nationality   = British
| known_for     = Cartoonist (caricaturist), [[children's literature]]
| training      =
| movement      =
| notable_works =
| patrons       =
| awards        =
| elected       =
| spouse        = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Mary Ann Walker|1827|1849|end=died}}
* {{marriage|Eliza Widdison|1851}}
}}
| partner       = Adelaide Attree
| children      = 11
| parents       = [[Isaac Cruikshank]]<br />Mary MacNaughton
| relatives     = [[Isaac Robert Cruikshank]] (brother)
| website       = 
}}
'''George Cruikshank''' or '''Cruickshank''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|r|ʊ|k|ʃ|æ|ŋ|k}} {{respell|KRUUK|shank}}; 27 September 1792 – 1 February 1878) was a British [[caricaturist]] and book illustrator, praised as the "modern [[William Hogarth|Hogarth]]" during his life. His book illustrations for his friend [[Charles Dickens]], and many other authors, reached an international audience.

==Early life==
Cruikshank was born in London. His father, [[Edinburgh]]-born [[Isaac Cruikshank]], was one of the leading caricaturists of the late 1790s and Cruikshank started his career as his father's apprentice and assistant. His older brother, [[Isaac Robert Cruikshank|Isaac Robert]], also followed in the family business as a caricaturist and illustrator.

Cruikshank's early work was caricature; but in 1823, at the age of 31, he started to focus on book illustration. He illustrated the first, 1823 English translation (by [[Edgar Taylor (author)|Edgar Taylor]] and David Jardine) of ''[[Grimms' Fairy Tales]]'', published in two volumes as ''German Popular Stories''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://doras.dcu.ie/17982/1/Niamh_Chapelle.pdf |title=Niamh Chapelle, 2001, p. 72 |access-date=2013-11-22}}</ref>

On 16 October 1827, he married Mary Ann Walker (1807–1849). Two years after her death, on 7 March 1851, he married Eliza Widdison. The two lived at 263 [[Hampstead Road, London|Hampstead Road]], [[north London]].

Cruikshank had fathered 11 illegitimate children with a mistress named Adelaide Attree, his former servant, who lived close to where he lived with his wife. Adelaide was ostensibly married and had taken the married surname 'Archibold'.<ref name="independent">{{cite news | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/the-secret-life-of-a-virtuous-artist-john-wardroper-turned-sleuth-to-find-the-startling-truth-about-george-cruikshank-illustrator-and-friend-of-dickens-and-a-man-revered-as-a-stern-moralist-1559547.html | title=The secret life of a virtuous artist: John Wardroper turned sleuth to find the startling truth about George Cruikshank, illustrator and friend of Dickens, and a man revered as a stern moralist| author=John Wardroper|work=[[The Independent]] | date=25 October 1992 | access-date=5 February 2013}}</ref>

==Sociopolitical caricatures and illustrations==

[[File:George Cruikshank, Satirical Sketches, NGA 30665.jpg|thumb|left|''Satirical Sketches'', [[National Gallery of Art]]]]

Cruikshank's early career was renowned for his social caricatures of English life for popular publications. He achieved early success collaborating with [[William Hone]] in his political satire ''The Political House That Jack Built'' (1819). In the same year he produced the now-infamous anti-abolitionist piece ''The New Union Club''. It satirised a dinner party organised by abolitionists with black guests.<ref>The caricature was devised in collaboration with Frederick Marryat (*[[Captain Marryat]]). See Temi Odumosu's article in ''The Slave in European Art: From Renaissance Trophy to Abolitionist Emblem'', ed Elizabeth McGrath and Jean Michel Massing, London (The Warburg Institute) and Turin 2012.</ref> While this piece was praised as "the finest of G.C.'s caricatures"<ref>{{Cite book|title=Catalogue of the Collection of the Works of George Cruikshank, the Property of H.W. Bruton (of Gloucester)|publisher=Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge|year=1897}}</ref> during the 19th century, it is now viewed as one of the most racist prints of its era.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lindfors|first=Bernth|title=Early African Entertainments Abroad: From the Hottentot Venus to Africa's First Olympians|publisher=The University of Wisconsin Press|year=2014|isbn=9780299301644|pages=44}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The New Union Club, Being a Representation of what took place at a celebrated Dinner, given by a celebrated society {{!}} Royal Museums Greenwich|url=https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-255159|access-date=2021-11-21|website=www.rmg.co.uk}}</ref> His 1819 print, ''The Belle Alliance, or the Female Reformers of Blackburn!!!,'' criticised the role of women in the reform movement, portraying them as unfeminine and grotesque.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kitchener|first=Caitlin|date=2022|title=Sisters of the Earth: The Landscapes, Radical Identities and Performances of Female Reformers in 1819|url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1754-0208.12778|journal=Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies|language=en|volume=45|issue=1|pages=77–93|doi=10.1111/1754-0208.12778|s2cid=246984311|issn=1754-0208|url-access=subscription}}</ref>[[File:The New Union Club Being a Representation of what took place at a celebrated Dinner given by a celebrated society.jpg|thumbnail|The New Union Club dinner with black guests]]His first major work was ''[[Pierce Egan]]'s [[Life in London (novel)|Life in London]]'' (1821) in which the characters Tom and Jerry, two 'men about town' visit various London locations and taverns to enjoy themselves and carouse. This was followed by ''The Comic Almanack'' (1835–1853) and ''Omnibus'' (1842). Cruikshank gained notoriety with his political prints that attacked the royal family and leading politicians. In 1820 he received a royal bribe of £100 for a pledge "not to caricature His Majesty" ([[George IV of the United Kingdom]]) "in any immoral situation". His work included a personification of England named [[John Bull]] who was developed from about 1790 in conjunction with other British satirical artists such as [[James Gillray]], and [[Thomas Rowlandson]].<ref>Gatrell, Vic. ''City of Laughter: Sex and Satire in Eighteenth-Century London''. New York: Walker & Co., 2006</ref>
[[File:Cruikshank - Old Bumblehead.png|thumb|''Old Bumblehead the 18th trying on [[Napoleon]] Boots'' 1823]]

Cruikshank replaced one of his major influences, [[James Gillray]], as England's most popular satirist. For a generation he delineated [[Tories (British political party)|Tories]], [[British Whig Party|Whigs]] and Radicals impartially. Satirical material came to him from every public event&nbsp;– wars abroad, the enemies of Britain (he was highly patriotic), the frolic, among other qualities, such as the weird and terrible, in which he excelled. His hostility to enemies of Britain and a crude racism is evident in his illustrations commissioned to accompany [[William Hamilton Maxwell|William Maxwell's]] ''History of the Irish rebellion in 1798'' (1845) where his lurid depictions of incidents in the [[Irish Rebellion of 1798|rebellion]] were characterised by the [[simian]]-like portrayal of Irish rebels.  Among the other racially engaged works of Cruikshank there were caricatures about the "legal barbarities" of the Chinese, the subject given by his friend, Dr. W. Gourley, a participant in the ideological battle around the [[Second Opium War|Arrow War]], 1856–60. 
[[File:Cruikshank fagin cell.jpg|thumb|200px|right|''[[Fagin]] in his cell.''<br>Etching, 1838]]

==Charles Dickens==

[[File:Print, poster, advertisement (BM 1859,1210.1015).jpg|thumb|1838 poster advertisement for ''Memoirs of Grimaldi'']]

For [[Charles Dickens]], Cruikshank illustrated ''[[Sketches by Boz]]'' (1836), ''[[The Mudfog Papers]]'' (1837–38) and ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' (1838). He also illustrated ''[[Memoirs of Joseph Grimaldi]]'' (1838), which Dickens edited under his regular {{lang|fr|nom de plume}}, "Boz". Cruikshank even acted in Dickens's amateur theatrical company.

On 30 December 1871, Cruikshank published a letter in ''[[The Times]]'' which claimed credit for much of the plot of ''Oliver Twist''. The letter launched a fierce controversy around who created the work. Cruikshank was not the first Dickens illustrator to make such a claim. [[Robert Seymour (illustrator)|Robert Seymour]] who illustrated the ''[[Pickwick Papers]]'' suggested that the idea for that novel was originally his; however, in his preface to the 1867 edition, Dickens strenuously denied any specific input.

The friendship between Cruikshank and Dickens soured further when Cruikshank became a fanatical [[teetotaler]] in opposition to Dickens's views of moderation.

In [[Somerset Maugham]]'s short story "Miss King", Cruickshank's influence is referenced:

{{quote|She wore a large white cotton nightcap (on entering Ashenden has noticed the brown wig on a stand on the dressing-table) tied under the chin and a white voluminous nightdress that came high up in the neck. Nightcap and nightdress belonged to a past age and reminded you of Cruickshank's illustrations to the novels of Charles Dickens.}}

==Temperance and the Volunteers==
In the late 1840s, Cruikshank's focus shifted from book illustration to an emphasis on [[temperance movement|alcohol temperance]] and [[anti-smoking]]. Formerly a heavy drinker, he now supported, lectured to, and supplied illustrations for the [[National Temperance Society]] and the Total Abstinence Society, among others. The best known of these are ''[[The Bottle (etchings)|The Bottle]]'', 8 plates (1847),<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Beveridge|first=Allan|date=2006|title=Psychiatry in pictures|journal=The British Journal of Psychiatry|language=en|volume=188|issue=1|pages=A2|doi=10.1192/bjp.188.1.1-a2|issn=0007-1250|doi-access=free}}</ref> with its sequel, ''The Drunkard's Children'', 8 plates (1848), with the ambitious work, ''The Worship of Bacchus'', published by subscription after the artist's oil painting, now in the [[Tate Gallery, London]]. For his efforts, he was made vice president of the [[National Temperance League (Great Britain)|National Temperance League]] in 1856.

When the invasion scare of 1859 led to the creation of the [[Volunteer Force (Great Britain)|Volunteer Movement]], Cruikshank was one of those who organised Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVCs). At first his unit was the [[24th (Havelock's Own) Surrey Rifle Volunteer Corps |24th Surrey RVC]], which recruited from working men who were total abstainers and was named 'Havelock's Own' in honour of Major-General Sir [[Henry Havelock]], a hero of the [[Indian Mutiny]] and pioneer of Temperance Clubs in the army.

However, Cruikshank received little encouragement from the Lord-Lieutenant of Surrey, and was rebuked for crossing into Kent to recruit. Disgusted, he disbanded his unit in 1862 and began anew in Middlesex, organising the 48th Middlesex RVC (Havelock's Temperance Volunteers). The unit ran into financial difficulties and when Cruikshank was forced to retire due to age, he was replaced as commanding officer by Lt-Col Cuthbert Vickers, a wealthy shipowner.  However, the [[Bath Chronicle and Weekly Gazette]] of 3 September 1868 reported that Cruikshank had resigned as Lieutenant-Colonel of the Volunteers "in consequence, it is said, of the reinstatement in the service of certain officers of his corps who some time since had a difference with their Lieutenant-Colonel and were cashiered".

The 48th Middlesex merged with the 2nd City of London RVC, also a working-men's unit, composed mainly of printers from the Fleet Street area, and the combined unit had a long history as the [[City of London Rifles]].<ref>Ian F.W. Beckett, ''Riflemen Form: A study of the Rifle Volunteer Movement 1859–1908'', Aldershot: Ogilby Trusts, 1982, {{ISBN|0-85936-271-X}}, pp. 24–5, 45–6, 61 95 and Appendix VII.</ref><ref>Ray Westlake, ''Tracing the Rifle Volunteers'', Barnsley: Pen and Sword, 2010, {{ISBN|978-1-84884-211-3}}, p. 179.</ref><ref>Capt E.G. Godfrey, ''The "Cast Iron Sixth": A History of the Sixth Battalion London Regiment (The City of London Rifles)'', London: Old Comrades' Association, 1935//Uckfield: Naval & Military Press, 2002, {{ISBN|1-84342-170-4}}, pp. 1–3.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.fusiliermuseumlondon.org/uncategorized/504/|title=''Falling off the Wagon'' at Fusiliers Museum}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/32752/pages/7018/page.pdf|title=Cuthbert Vickers probate, ''London Gazette'' 3 October 1922.}}</ref>

==Later years==
[[File:Cruikshank - DPLA - 4ea97cd88cf83ec244337310b019eed5 (page 1).jpg|thumb|left|Cruikshank c. 1859–1870]]
[[File:Memorial to George Cruikshank in Kensal Green Cemetery.jpg|thumb|Memorial to George Cruikshank in [[Kensal Green Cemetery]]]]
After he developed [[palsy]] in later life, Cruikshank's health and work began to decline in quality. He died on 1&nbsp;February 1878 and was originally buried in [[Kensal Green Cemetery]]. In November 1878 his remains were exhumed and reburied in [[St. Paul's Cathedral]].<ref>"Memorials of St Paul's Cathedral" [[William Sinclair (Archdeacon of London)|Sinclair, W.]] p. 468: London; Chapman & Hall, Ltd; 1909.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.victorianweb.org/art/parks/kensalgreen/12.html |title=Cruikshank's Grave Site on The Victorian Web |publisher=Victorianweb.org |date=2006-10-20 |access-date=2013-11-22}}</ref> [[Punch (magazine)|''Punch'' magazine]], which presumably did not know of his large illegitimate family, said in its obituary: "There never was a purer, simpler, more straightforward or altogether more blameless man. His nature had something childlike in its transparency."<ref name="independent" />

In his lifetime he created nearly 10,000 prints, illustrations, and plates. There are collections of his works in the [[British Museum]] and the [[Victoria and Albert Museum]]. A [[Royal Society of Arts]] [[blue plaque]] commemorates Cruikshank at 293 Hampstead Road in [[Camden Town]].<ref name='EngHet'>{{cite web| url=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/discover/blue-plaques/search/cruikshank-george-1792-1878|title=CRUIKSHANK, GEORGE (1792-1878)|publisher=English Heritage| access-date=2012-10-23}}</ref>

==Samples of his work==
'''''[[The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman]]'''''
<gallery mode="packed" heights="180">

File:George Cruikshank - Tristram Shandy, Plate I. The Effects of Trim's Eloquence.jpg|Plate I
File:George Cruikshank - Tristram Shandy, Plate II. Obadiah leading in Dr. Slop.jpg|Plate II
File:George Cruikshank - Tristram Shandy, Plate III. The Jack-boots transformed into Mortars.jpg|Plate III
File:George Cruikshank - Tristram Shandy, Plate IV. The long-nosed Stranger of Strasburg.jpg|Plate IV
File:George Cruikshank - Tristram Shandy, Plate V. My Uncle Toby on his Hobby-horse.jpg|Plate V
File:George Cruikshank - Tristram Shandy, Plate VI. Trim's relation of Tristram's misfortune.jpg|Plate VI
File:George Cruikshank - Tristram Shandy, Plate VII. The Quarrel of Slop and Susannah.jpg|Plate VII
File:George Cruikshank - Tristram Shandy, Plate VIII. The Smoking Batteries.jpg|Plate VIII
</gallery>
'''Others'''
<gallery mode="packed" heights="180">
File:Cruikshank - The Corsican Shuttlecock.png|''[[The Corsican Shuttlecock]]'', 1814
File:Cruikshank - The Allied Bakers.png|''[[The Allied Bakers]]'', 1814
File:Bodleian Libraries, Twelfth night or,- What you will now performing at the Theatre Royal Europe, with new scenery decorationscc.jpg|''[[Twelfth Night (print)|Twelfth Night]]'', 1815. This depicts the [[Congress of Vienna]] redrawing the boundaries of Europe following the [[Napoleonic Wars]].
File:Two green bags.jpg|''Two Green Bags'', 1820. A satire on the [[Trial of Queen Caroline]]
File:Jacco1.jpg|[[Jacco Macacco]] at the [[Westminster-Pit]]''<br>1821''
File:1819 Prince Regent G Cruikshank caricature.png|An unflattering 1819 caricature of the [[George IV of the United Kingdom|Prince Regent]] illustrating "The Political House that Jack Built" by [[William Hone]]
File:1850-g-cruikshank-crinoline-parody.png|''A Splendid Spread'', early satire on the [[1850s in fashion|crinoline]] from ''The Comic Almanack'' for 1850
File:Cruikshank-Self-Portrait-1858.jpg|George Cruikshank, ''Self-Portrait''
File:Victorian engraving of George Cruikshank.jpg|Engraving of George Cruikshank
File:Cruikshank-dandies.jpg|''Humming-birds—or—a Dandy Trio''. 1819.
File:Royal embarkation, or bearing Brittania's hope from a bathing machine to the royal barge (BM 1868,0808.12905).jpg|''Royal Embarkation'', 1819
File:Monstrosities-of-1818-Cruikshank.jpg|''Monstrosities of 1818'', extravagant clothing styles of men's and women's fashions
File:Loo in the Kitchen.jpg|A group of servants gathered in a kitchen, ape the manners of their employers
File:The old maid and her tom cat LCCN2006688809.jpg|Caricature of the [[Old Bailey]]
File:Spectacles-op.jpg|Caricature concerning the prices at the [[Covent Garden Theatre]]
File:British valour.jpg|1813 caricature showing the Americans as cowardly in face of the British
File:Cruikshank - Snuffing out Boney.png|''Snuffing out [[Napoleon Bonaparte|Boney]]'', 1814
File:1841 december 280.jpg|''December – A Swallow at Christmas (Rara avis in terris)''
File:The Assembly of the Gifted George Cruckshank Antique Book Print Illustration.jpg|''The Assembly of the Gifted''
</gallery>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Evans, Hilary and Mary. ''The Man Who Drew the Drunkard's Daughter: Life and Art of George Cruikshank, 1792-1878''. (London: Frederick Muller, 1978). 
* Cruikshank, George. ''Graphic Works of George Cruikshank'' (New York: Dover Publications, 1980) {{ISBN|0-486-23438-X}}
* George, Mary Dorothy. ''Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum'', vol. VI (1938), vol. VII (1942), vol. VIII (1947), vol. IX (1949).
* Bryant and Heneage. ''Dictionary of British Cartoonists and caricaturists 1730–1980'' (Scolar Press, 1994).
* Buchanan-Brown, John. ''The Book Illustrations of George Cruikshank''  Charles Tuttle 1980
* Cohn, Albert M. "George Cruikshank: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Work Executed During the Years 1896–1977", ''Bookmans journal'' (London, 1924).
* ''Bates, William. George Cruikshank: The Artist, the Humourist, and the Man, with Some Account of his Brother Robert. A Critico-bibliographical Essay'' (Amsterdam: Emmering, 1972)
* Price, Chris. "'Pictorially Speaking, so Ludicrous': George IV on the Dance Floor", ''Music in Art: International Journal for Music Iconography'' XLIII/1-2 (2018), 49–65.

==External links==
{{Commons}}
* [http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/illustrators/cruikshank.html SurLaLune Fairy Tale Pages: Fairy Tale Illustrations of George Cruikshank] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716202848/http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/illustrators/cruikshank.html |date=16 July 2012 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070208095111/http://www.cartoonstock.com/vintage/vintage_search.asp?x=a&keyword=&Category=Not+Selected&Boolean=Or&Artist=Cruikshank%2C+George&submit=Search George Cruikshank cartoons at CartoonStock] (Commercial site)
* [http://www.cruikshankart.com/illustrations/ Online Gallery of Illustrations by George Cruikshank]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20081204015405/https://library.rice.edu/collections/WRC/finding-aids/manuscripts/0297 George Cruikshank letters, 1845 and 1868] from the Woodson Research Center at Rice University
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20090417021945/https://library.rice.edu/collections/WRC/finding-aids/manuscripts/0493 Patten Research Material on George Cruikshank] from the Woodson Research Center at Rice University
* {{UK National Archives ID}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=9068| name=George Cruikshank}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=George Cruikshank}}
* [https://www.flickr.com/search/?tags=artist:name=%22George%20Cruikshank%22 Works by George Cruikshank on Flickr Commons]
* [http://www.lambiek.net/cruikshank_george.htm George Cruikshank] at [[Lambiek#Comiclopedia|Comiclopedia]]
*[http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8rj4gx8 Guide to the George Cruikshank Etchings.] Special Collections and Archives, The UC Irvine Libraries, Irvine, California.
* {{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Cruikshank, George|volume=7|pages=523–524}}
* {{LCAuth|n80067117|George Cruikshank|632|ue}}

{{Victorian children's literature}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cruikshank, George}}
[[Category:1792 births]]
[[Category:1878 deaths]]
[[Category:English people of Scottish descent]]
[[Category:19th-century British engravers]]
[[Category:Burials at Kensal Green Cemetery]]
[[Category:Burials at St Paul's Cathedral]]
[[Category:Charles Dickens]]
[[Category:English caricaturists]]
[[Category:English editorial cartoonists]]
[[Category:19th-century English illustrators]]
[[Category:English satirists]]
[[Category:British political artists]]
[[Category:Artists from London]]