Cruikshank, George

(b. Sept. 27, 1792, London, Eng. – d. Feb. 1, 1878, London), English artist, caricaturist, and illustrator who, beginning his career with satirical political cartoons and later illustrating topical and children's books, became one of the most prolific and popular masters of his sphere of art.

In 1811, when George was still in his teens, he gained opular success with a series of political caricatures that he created for the periodical The Scourge, a Monthly Expositor of Imposture and Folly. For the next 10 years Cruikshank satirized with fine irreverence the political policies of the Tories and Whigs.

His most famous book illustrations were for the novelist Charles Dickens in the latter's Sketches by “Boz” (1836-37) and Oliver Twist (1838).

Quiz

(Phiz) - Browne, Hablot Knight, (b. June 15, 1815, Lambeth, near London--d. July 8, 1882, Brighton, East Sussex, Eng.), British artist, preeminent as an interpreter and illustrator of Dickens' characters.

Browne was early apprenticed to an engraver. At the age of 19 he abandoned engraving in favour of other artistic work, and a meeting with Dickens two years later determined the form which this would take. Robert Seymour, the original illustrator of The Pickwick Papers, had just committed suicide, and the serial publication of the book was in danger from the lack of a capable successor. Browne applied for the post, and the drawings that he submitted were preferred by Dickens. His pseudonym of "Phiz" was adopted in order to harmonize with Dickens' "Boz," and it was by his work for Dickens (especially in Pickwick, David Copperfield, Dombey and Son, Martin Chuzzlewit, and Bleak House) that his reputation was made.

Bouguereau, William-Adolphe

(1825 - 1905), French painter, a dominant figure in his nation's academic painting during the second half of the 19th century.

Bouguereau entered the Scole des Beaux-Arts in 1846 and was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1850. Upon his return to France from four years' study in Italy, he attracted a wide following with his mythological and allegorical paintings, although his portrait paintings are perhaps held in higher esteem today. His work was characterized by a highly finished, technically impeccable realism and a sentimental interpretation of his subject matter. As a proponent of official orthodoxy in painting, he played a major role in the exclusion of the works of the Impressionists and other experimental painters from the Salon. In his later years he decorated the chapels of several Parisian churches and painted religious compositions in a Pre-Raphaelite style. Modern critics tend to assess Bouguereau as a painter who sacrificed boldness of technique and originality of outlook for a highly polished but conventional treatment of the human form.

Frank Dicksee

(1853 – 1928) was a member of a noted artistic family. He was initially trained by his father, before entering the Royal Academy schools in 1870. He came to maturity at a time when the very word '‘art’ was synonymous with romantic and sentimental illustration. Many of his pictures were of dramatic historical and legendary scenes. He also was a noted painter of elegant, highly-finished portraits of fashionable women.