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Home arrow The Pioneers

The Pioneers
Page 7 of 35

A Pair of Broad Bottoms
'A Pair of Broad Bottoms', depicting 'the presentation of a Hotentot at the Court of King George IV. (Probably an early George Cruickshank.) In the eighteenth century, etchings such as these were sometimes known as 'the comicals'.
Nevertheless, there were a few artists who rose above the pack, and managed to foster a reputation. Famous names, who either worked in plate engraving or had their work translated into sheets, included: William Hogarth (1697-1764), James Gillray (1757-1815), George Cruickshank (1792-1878) and Thomas Rowlandson (1757-1827). Much has been written about these figures elsewhere, suffice to say that they were responsible for raising pictorial satire to new levels: their skill for exaggeration and ironic juxtaposition of words and pictures set an aesthetic template that has endured to this day. It is also interesting to note that three of the four artists considered strips and prints produced in sequence to be an integral part of their repertoire: see for example, Hogarth's Rake's Progress, Rowlandson's The Tours of Dr Syntax and Gillray's John Bull's Progress.
In the mid-1800s, there came a significant technological breakthrough. Improvements in photo-processing made possible, for the first time, facsimile reproduction straight from the drawing. Artists no longer had to copy every single line of their picture or be subject to the engraver's personal interpretation. Now their drawings could be faithfully reproduced. For the publisher, this reduced the price of printing, opening the way for cheaper publications.
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