George Cruikshank

George Cruikshank ( born September 27, 1792 in London, † February 1, 1878 ) was a British cartoonist and illustrator. He is considered the successor to the late James Gillray in 1815.

Life and work

George Cruikshank was born in 1792 as the second son of Isaac Cruikshank lithographers in London. At the age of twelve he began certificates for children lotteries, paperback books, greeting cards and street ballads to illustrate. After the death of Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 Cruikshank drew his funeral, a year later he caricatured Napoleon and the British King George III .. In the following years, resulting in a range of Napoleon caricatures first major gained fame Cruikshank but 1819 with the illustration of the satire " the political house that Jack built" by William Hone, who did address the so-called " Peterloo massacre " of 16 August 1819. With the illustration of Pierce Egan's "Life in London ", which appeared in monthly deliveries from October 1820 to 1821, Cruikshank succeeded the final breakthrough.

The Illustrations of William Clarke "Three courses and a dessert " ( 1830) and William Carpenter's " Political Alphabet " (1831 ) cemented his reputation as the best English book illustrator. In addition to his political cartoons illustrated Cruikshank fairy tales, among other Grimm (1823 ), Defoe's " Robinson Crusoe " (1831 ), "Don Quixote " by Cervantes ( 1833), Scott's Waverley Novels (1836 ) and the " Oliver Twist " by Dickens ( 1837).

Standing still under the impression of his father's alcohol death in 1811, Cruikshank 1847 joined a temperance movement in which campaigned for an alcohol- free life. With the help of his illustrations, the two treatises "The bottle" and "The drunkards children" were a great success. 1875 Cruikshank made ​​his last engraving and died in his hometown of London three years later.