George Cruikshank

George Cruikshank etched most of the 16,000 illustrations he made in his lifetime. His style and subject matter was grounded in the tradition of the British political cartoon as practiced by his father Isaac Cruikshank, Thomas Rowlandson, and James Gillray. By the 1830s, etching was considered an antiquated method of illustration. Nonetheless, Cruikshank never deviated from his favored medium. Responsible for many of his own publications, this drawing is a design for My Sketchbook, exhibited in this case. The rather freehand style of sketching of the drawing indicates that it was a preliminary sketch for the subsequent etching.