In the centre of the sheet the Artist has written: "Some of these suggestions to Chas. Dickens, and which he wrote to in the second part of 'Sketches by Boz.'"
In considering the story as a whole, it is difficult to say how much of the powerful impression we are conscious of may be due to the illustrator. In his famous eulogy on Cruikshank, Thackeray remarked: "We are not at all disposed to undervalue the works and genius of Mr. Dickens, and we are sure that he would admit as readily as any man the wonderful assistance that he has derived from the artist who has given us portraits of his ideal personages, and made them familiar to all the world. Once seen, these figures remain impressed on the memory, which otherwise would have had no hold upon them, and the Jew and Bumble, and the heroes and heroines of the Boz Sketches, become personal acquaintances with each of us. O that Hogarth could have illustrated Fielding in the same way! and fixed down on paper those grand figures of Parson Adams, and Squire Allworthy, and the great Jonathan Wild." Again, with more especial reference to the "Oliver Twist" designs, the kindly "Michael Angelo Titmarsh" wrote: "The sausage scene at Fagin's; Nancy seizing the boy; that capital piece of humour, Mr. Bumble's courtship, which is even better in Cruikshank's version than in Boz's exquisite account of the interview; Sykes's[3] farewell to his dog; and the Jew—the dreadful Jew—that Cruikshank drew! What a fine touching picture of melancholy desolation is that of Sykes and the dog! The poor cur is not too well drawn, the landscape is stiff and formal; but in this case the faults, if faults they be, of execution rather add to than diminish the effect of the picture; it has a strange, wild, dreary, broken-hearted look; we fancy we see the landscape as it must have appeared to Sykes, when ghastly and with bloodshot eyes he looked at it. As for the Jew in the dungeon, let us say nothing of it—what can we say to describe it?"
The complete set of twenty-four working tracings of the original designs for "Oliver Twist," some of which exhibit variations from the finished etchings, realised £140 at Sotheby's in March 1892. Water-colour replicas of all the subjects were prepared by Cruikshank in 1866 for Mr. F. W. Cosens, which the artist supplemented by thirteen smaller drawings and a humorous title-page, the entire series being reproduced in colour for an edition de luxe of "Oliver Twist," published by Chapman & Hall in 1894. The Cruikshank Collections in the British and South Kensington Museums include many of the artist's sketches and "first ideas" for the "Oliver Twist" plates, as well as a number of the matured designs. Here are several trial sketches for the monthly wrapper of the first octavo edition, executed in pencil with slight washes of sepia added; the original drawings for "Rose Maylie and Oliver" (known to collectors as the "Fireside" plate, to which reference will presently be made), and for "Mr. Bumble Degraded in the Eyes of the Paupers" (with marginal sketches), the title of which is appended in Dickens's autograph, where, instead of "the eyes," the word "presence" was originally written. Here, also, we find the first sketch of Noah Claypole enjoying an oyster-supper, with the following query written by the artist: "Dr. Dickens, 'Title' wanted—will any of these do? Yours, G. Ck." The proposed titles are then given, thus: "Mr. Claypole Astonishing Mr. Bumble and 'the Natives';" "Mr. Claypole Indulging;" "Mr. Claypole as he Appeared when his Master was Out,"—the latter being adopted. On the back of a pen-and-ink drawing of "Oliver's Reception by Fagin and the Boys," Cruikshank suggested a different title, viz., "Oliver Introduced to the Old Gentleman by Jack Dawkins." A beautiful little water-colour drawing of the subject, entitled "Oliver Introduced to the Respectable Old Gentleman," is in the Print Room of the British Museum, where we may also discover a portrait of Oliver himself—a profile study of the head as seen in the drawing now referred to. On the back of a sketch of Mr. Brownlow at the bookstall (for the plate entitled "Oliver Amazed at the Dodger's Mode of 'Going to Work'") is the rough draft of an unsigned note in the autograph of Cruikshank, evidently addressed to Dickens:—
"Thursday Eg., June 15, '37.
"My dear Sir,—Can you let me have a subject for the second Plate? The first is in progress. By the way, would you like to see the Drawing? I can spare it for an hour or two if you will send for it."
Plate VIII
"MR. BUMBLE DEGRADED IN THE EYES OF THE PAUPERS"
Facsimile of the Original Sketch for "Oliver Twist" by GEORGE CRUIKSHANK
The Inscription above the Sketch is in the Autograph of Dickens.
I am enabled to reproduce in facsimile a very interesting sheet of sketches for prominent characters in "Oliver Twist," containing no less than five studies of Fagin, including the "first idea" for the famous etching of the Jew in the condemned cell. Still more noteworthy are four studies of Bill Sikes in the condemned cell, evidently made early in the progress of the book, thus seeming to indicate that the artist conjectured this would be the fate of the burglar instead of the Jew; or is it possible that the existence of these studies may be considered as a corroboration of his assertion (in a letter to the Times, presently to be quoted) that he, and not Dickens, must be credited with the idea of putting either Sikes or Fagin in the cell?