English 331:  English Authors after 1800   

Blake and Romanticism

Spring 2015

Stephen C. Behrendt

  Some Sources for British Caricature,   1740-1830:

 Richard Newton. Treason! (1798)

William Hogarth (1697-1764)

     Hogarth on Artcyclopedia. A useful portal for finding Hogarth works in museums, exhibitions, and online sites worldwide.

     The Works of William Hogarth. Digital edition of Hogarth's engravings, from the famous Nichols edition of 1822. An excellent resource. Includes substantial commentary on the engravings.

     William Hogarth and 18th-Century Print Culture. An Online digital exhibition, based on a 1997exhibition at Northwestern University.

     The Site for Research on William Hogarth. A "fun" site, with lots of good links and fascinating information

Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827)

      Rowlandson on Artcyclopedia. A useful portal for finding Rowlandson works in museums, exhibitions, and online sites worldwide.

      Rowlandson in the British Museum. Online gallery of 80 works by Rowlandson from the collections of the British Museum.

     High Spirits:  The Comic Art of Thomas Rowlandson. An online version of an exhibition at the Holburne Museum in Bath in 2014-15.

James Gillray (1757-1815)

     Gillray on Artcyclopedia. A useful portal for finding Gillray works in museums, exhibitions, and online sites worldwide.

     Some early prints, 1779-1793. Early images by Gillray.

     Gillray Gallery from The Museum Syndicate

    Gillray Caricatures from the New York Public Library (an excellent selection)

     Gillray Caricatures from the Princeton University Digital Library (also excellent)

 Isaac Cruikshank (1764-1811)   

     Isaac Cruikshankon Artcyclopedia. A useful portal for finding his works in museums, exhibitions, and online sites worldwide.

     Isaac Cruikshank in the British Museum collections. An online guide to over 1800 images by Isaac Cruikshank.

     Isaac (and George) Cruikshank on tumblr. A collection of images, most with commentary.

George Cruikshank (1792-1878)

     George Cruikshank on Artcyclopedia. A useful portal for finding his works in museums, exhibitions, and online sites worldwide.

     "Satire and Social Community:  The Life of George Cruikshank." An online exhibition from the Cleveland Museum of Art.

     The Wikipedia entry for George Cruikshank is especially useful for his early career, when he was actively involved with Radical politics.

     The Political House that Jack Built. This is an online annotated critical edition of the 1819 radical political pamphlet by William Hone, with illustrations by Cruikshank. It appears on the Romantic Circles website.

     "George Cruikshank and the Phrenological Head" An online article from Romantic Circles that explores Cruikshank's relation to the "science" of phrenology (or the study of head shapes).

Some more general visual resources

     The English and French stereotype in satirical prints, 1720-1815. An online exhibition from the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

      Extensive searchable catalogue of British caricature ("cartoon") prints in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. This large collection (over 8000 images) containms primarily prints from 1780-1830. An excellent resource.

       Catalogue of Political and Personal Satires Preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. This extraordinary visual project, which is a monument to the remarkable bibliographical work of the great British scholar M. Dorothy George, is being digitized. Many of the more than 5000 images of caricature prints are now available on the British Museum's website at this link. This site is well worth browsing, and it gets easier to use (and explore) as you work with it.

      Romantic Circles Gallery. A large collection of various images that appear in postings to the Romantic Circles website. Worth browsing.

Some Print Resources

      Alexander, David S. Richard Newton and English Caricature in the 1790s. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1998.

      Barrell, John. "Radicalism, Visual Culture, and Speactacle in the 1790s." Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net 46 (May 2007). Excellent essay, with many illustrations. Helpful on the radical politics of the earlier Romantic era.

      Haywood, Ian. Romanticism and Caricature. Cambridge:Cambridge UP, 2014.

        Porterfiled, Todd, ed. The Efflroescence of Caricature: 1759-1838. London: Ashgate, 2011.