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George Cruikshank was an English caricaturist and book illustrator, praised by contemprary experts as the modern Hogarth. He was a friend of Charles Dickens and illustrated his novels and those of other authors. George was born in London (1792). His father, Isaac Cruikshank, was a successdul caricaturists of the late-18th century. George began working as an apprentice and then assistant. His older brother, Isaac Robert, also pursued the family trade, both as a caricaturist and illustrator. At first most of his work was caricature, often with a political social themes. We note a nursery Christmas scene (1826). He was an abolitionist. As he became older and more independent he beagn tp focus on book illustration (1823). His first book was a translation by Edgar Taylor and David Jardine of Grimms' Fairy Tales which was published in two volumes as German Popular Stories (1823). His frirendship with Dickens meant that he illistarted the popular artists novels. Here is a scene he illustrated frpm Oliver Twist (1839) (figure 1). It is instantky recognizable and probably the most iconic scene in all of Enlish liteterature. Cruikshank married Mary Ann Walker (1827) and than after her death he married Eliza Widdison (1851). It was not known until his death (1878) that he had 11 illegitimate children with a mistress, Adelaide Attree, a former servant.
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