VAUXHALL GARDENS
Before quitting the subject of the triple alliance between Ackermann, Rowlandson, and Combe, a word is due to the method in which the delicately-tinted illustrations to their joint-productions were executed. According to Delaborde, the copperplate engravings printed in colour at the close of the eighteenth century, were usually printed from one plate, done in stipple, and the various tints were rubbed in by the printer, who used a sort of stump for this purpose instead of the ordinary dabbing-brush. This was a lengthy process, and not always satisfactory, since so much depended on the discretion of the printer. A more common method was to print broadly with three tints of printing ink, and afterwards to complete the colouring by hand with water-colours. Mr. Grego has described in some detail the manner in which the etchings of Rowlandson were produced by the conscientious Ackermann. The artist would saunter round to the Repository from his lodgings in the Adelphi, and call for reed-pens, drawing-paper, and saucers of vermilion and Indian ink, which last he proceeded to combine in his own inimitable fashion. "For the book-illustrations a finished drawing was first made, and then Rowlandson etched the outline firmly and sharply on the copperplate, an impression from the bitten-in outline was printed upon drawing-paper, and the artist put in his shadows, modelling of forms and sketchy distance in the most delicate handling possible. The shadows were then copied in acqua-tint on the outlined plate, sometimes by the designer, but in most cases by an engraver. Rowlandson next completed the colouring of his own Indian-ink shaded impression in delicate tints harmoniously selected. This tinted impression served as a copy for Ackermann's famous staff of colourists, who, having worked under his supervision for many years, attained a degree of perfection and neatness never arrived at before, and almost beyond belief in the present day." The result of this elaborate care may perhaps best be seen in The Microcosm of London, The Dance of Death, and the charming edition of The Vicar of Wakefield, published in 1817.
[1] Father of the more celebrated Augustus Welby and Edward Welby Pugin.
[2] His letters to her were published the year after his death.
II
In the early years of the nineteenth century, when Gillray was fast drinking himself into imbecility, and Rowlandson had turned his attention to book-illustration, English caricature, that once vigorous plant, showed signs of premature decay. In the opinion of all lovers of pictorial satire, the promise displayed in the as yet immature designs of a couple of youthful brothers, Robert and George Cruikshank, held out the best hopes for the future. The two boys were the sons of a Lowland Scotchman, Isaac Cruikshank (c. 1756-c. 1811), who came to London with his Highland wife some time in the "eighties," and made a modest mark as a water-colour painter and caricaturist. He produced a large number of political caricatures in the style of Gillray, which were coloured by his wife and later by his two boys, who enjoyed but little schooling, and only so much artistic training as he could give them. It was owing, probably, to Isaac's passion for Scotch whisky, which is said to have hastened his end, that the little household in Duke Street, Holborn, had a hard struggle to make both ends meet, and George (1792-1878), while yet a child himself, was set to illustrate children's books for the trade. Before he was out of his teens he was producing coloured caricatures, of which the arrest of Sir Francis Burdett is the earliest important example, and contributing etchings to The Scourge (1811-16), a scurrilous publication, edited by "Mad Mitford." The principal subjects of his somewhat crude satire were the Regent, Buonaparte, and a certain number of too notorious personages in "high life." In 1814, George illustrated a Life of Napoleon in Hudibrastic verse, by Dr. Syntax, not our friend Combe, but some anonymous admirer of his hero. Young Cruikshank's talent attracted the attention of William Hone of Table-Book fame, who employed him to illustrate a series of radical squibs, including The Political House that Jack built, The Political Alphabet, and The Queen's Matrimonial Ladder. It was for Hone that George designed his famous Bank-note "not to be imitated," which, he fondly believed, put a stop to hanging for the forgery of one pound notes. Hone seems to have been a very poor paymaster, but his custom brought the young artist great notoriety, and by 1820 "the ingenious Mr. Cruikshank" was firmly established as a popular favourite.