Earnest, healthy, vigorous, and ambitious to the last; he could not resign himself to live on the glory of the past He must be ever up and doing—especially in the work that lay nearest his valiant heart. He scattered his temperance work far and wide. “The Fruits of Intemperance,” published by John Cassell, about 1855, is a minor design akin to that of the Triumph of Bacchus. The tree is covered with medallion-shaped fruit, and on each medallion is a picture showing the effects of intoxicating liquors. The roots of the tree are a bundle of serpents, and the surrounding ground is covered with tombstones, inscribed “early fruit.” But Cruikshank never lost an opportunity of preaching his moral. He made a drawing of “a drunken man knocking down a drunken woman, in Oxford Street” on a Sunday afternoon; and another of “a drunken ruffian knocking down a woman who carries a child,” in Farringdon Street. He illustrated the “Autobiography of a Thirsty Soul” in the Weekly Record; and for the same paper he drew a publican’s quart measure, with a death’s head in lieu of ale froth, two drunkards babbling of the strengthening properties of beer by a “Noted Stout House.” In the Band of Hope Review he illustrated a series, a parody on “The House that Jack Built,” called “the Gin Shop.” He threw off fly-leaves for Mr. Tweedie, as “A Man a Thing,” “The House in Shadow,” “The Loaf Lecture,” “There is Poison in the Pot,” “The Red Dragon,” and “The Smokeless Chimney,”—the last of which he designed as a contribution to the Cotton Famine Fund, during the American Civil War. But it didn’t pay. He was consoled, when publishers fell away from him and his means of living became precarious by the steady friendship of many admirers. He received a pension of £95 from the Crown, and one of £50 from the Royal Academy. In 1875, an endeavour was made by Mr. Charles Rogers to raise a second testimonial; but this effort finally took the shape of a committee (of which his good friend Dr. B. W. Richardson was chairman) to purchase the Cruikshank collection of etchings and drawings for the nation and drawings for the nation—the price put on it being £3,000—£500 more than the artist himself had fixed.
After much trouble and many disappointments, the collections passed into the possession of the Westminster Aquarium Company; Cruikshank receiving in December, £2500—the price put upon it being what artist himself had fixed; then receiving in 1876, £2,500, and a survivorship life-annuity for himself and wife of about £35.
The closing years of George Cruikshank’s life were harassed by a controversy about a design he made and a statue he modelled of King Robert the Bruce, to be erected by subscription at Bannockburn. The consequence was a very lamentable quarrel, during which Cruikshank claimed that he had been engaged by the committee to make the design, * and that the statue modelled by Mr. Currie was originated by him—the contrary being, according to the committee, the fact. Cruikshank, in co-operation with Mr. Adams-Acton, produced a model; that is, Cruikshank made a design, and then himself stood in the attitude of it as Mr. Adams-Acton’s model—the result being a statue, and one which found favour with members of the committee. But money disputes put an end to negotiations with Cruikshank. He had drawn £85 for expenses; his plan involved in any case an outlay which the funds would not cover; and finally, after many difficulties, the statue was committed to the care of Mr. Currie.
* In a letter to the Times (December 5th, 1877), he
remarked: “As I am the artist who was first engaged by the
Bruce Committee to make a design for a monumental statue of
King Robert the Bruce, I was very much surprised, upon
reading in the Times of the 26th ult. the account of the
unveiling of the Bruce statue at Stirling, to find that no
statement was made as to my being the original designer,”
etc.
But Cruikshank’s share in the transaction, as set forth by himself, and as addressed to the Scottish people in his eighty-fourth year, is too remarkable an example of his vigour in old age to be omitted.
“An Address and Explanation to the Scottish People, by George Cruikshank, with respect to the proposed Statue in Honour of King Robert the Bruce.
“In the month of May 1870, several Scottish noblemen and gentlemen formed themselves into a committee with the object of raising a fund by subscription, for the purpose of having a statue of King Robert the Bruce placed on “the field of Bannockburn,” in honour of that hero, and in memory of the great victory achieved by him and his army in that field on the 24th of June, 1314.
“Some friends of mine, who were on this committee, invited me to be a member thereof—which honour I was obliged to decline, as I could not spare the time to attend the meetings; but, as ‘The Bruce’ was one of my great heroes, I promised to give them all the assistance I could, and suggested the attitude for the figure, which they all approved of, and at their first meeting they decided that I should be requested to make the design for the statue.
“I must here explain that, although I am an artist and designer, I am not what is termed a sculptor; but it so happened that a friend of mine, a brother artist, who is a sculptor, chanced to see my design, and was so pleased with it, that he volunteered to make a model of it, which he did, acting upon my suggestions, and from me as I stood in the attitude and equipped in the armour.
“I also designed a pedestal; and when the model was completed, a cast in plaster of Paris was taken, and exhibited in my studio to the committee, and the noblemen, gentlemen, and friends who attended. All highly approved of the design and the model, and the gentlemen gave most flattering reports, for which I most sincerely thank them. After this I had the very great honour of submitting the model for the inspection of Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle.