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CRUIKSHANK, Robert Eight original pencil and watercolor drawings [ca. 1835] 1830-1840

Original Artwork, SignedA Unique Collection of Robert Cruikshank's Scarce Later WorkCRUIKSHANK, Robert. Eight original pencil and watercolor drawings [ca. 1830-1840]. Image size: 7 x 8 in; 178 x 205 mm. Each matted with mylar window and bound together in an album.Quarto (11 x 11 3/4 in; 278 x 298 mm). Eight pencil and watercolor drawings, each signed at lower right edge.Quarter black cloth over mattes. All edges gilt. Fine. Housed in a cloth slipcase with gilt lettered black morocco spine label.An extraordinary sampling of the artist's late work, of which very little is known; thus a unique and most important addition to our knowledge of the artist, illustrating themes not often seen in British caricature. Drawings here include work for Johnny Fairburn, "a jovial print dealer Easygoing and good-natured, [who] became one of George and Robert's staunchest patrons. He was generous, too. It is said that when the Cruikshanks wanted money, they would place an empty purse marked 'unfurnished' on the mantel, and when Fairburn walked in, he would replenish it, as he frequently did for over the next quarter century" (Patten, George Cruickshank's Life, TImes, and Art, p. 45). Other drawings illustrate "Twelfth Night" characters by "Mark" - engraver and publisher J.L. Mark. Twelfth Night here refers, not to Shakespeare's play, but to the holiday upon which it was based: "the evening of the fifth of January, preceding Twelfth Day, the eve of the Epiphany, formerly the last day of the Christmas festivities and observed as a time of merrymaking" (Oxford English Dictionary). All of the drawings are quite vivid. Three of the drawings are occult-themed designs, limning the fad for the occult that swept through Europe during the 1830s. The Drawings:1. Twelfth Night - Fairburn's Characters - Candidates for Twelfth Cake: A riotous group of tippling merrymakers celebrates the twelfth day of Christmas.2. The Palm Reader: A gypsy fortuneteller reads the palm of a young lady in mid-swoon whilst her suitor looks on and provides support, the tableau surrounded by a circular border decorated with occult symbols, with each corner illustrating prophesies of marriage, money, social position and everlasting love.3. Royal Circle of Destiny by Gabriel, Astrologer of the 19th Century: Robert Smith published a contemporary periodical, Astrologer of the Nineteenth Century under the pseudonym Raphael; Cruikshank has perhaps confused his archangels. In a central image surrounded by a circular border decorated with occult symbols, Gabriel examines a globe of the heavens. The perimeters are illustrated with prophesies of True Love, Deceit, Death, the All-Seeing Eye, etc.4. Introducing Tom Thumb To Court - Fairburn's Characters: the folkloric General Tom Thumb is presented to Victoria and Albert and members of their court.5. Victoria and Albert Wedding Party (?)6. Shipton's Oracle: In a vivid central rectangular panel, the legendary Mother Shipton, soothsayer and prophetess, sits with a black cat upon her shoulder surrounded by four rectangular vignettes illustrating a witch's Going Up In The Sky; The Magic Spell; a young lady Dreaming of Happiness; and a couple's Dreams of Love.7. Twelfth Night - Mark's New Characters: In contrast to drawing number one, here five couples sedately observe the holiday.8. Long May They Flourish - Flourish Bright & Free; Fairburn's Characters [Commemorating the ascension of King William IV and Duchess Adelaide to the throne]Robert Isaac Cruikshank(1789 1856), caricaturist and portrait painter, was the older brother of famed caricaturist George Cruikshank, both of whom learned the trade in the studio of their father, the caricaturist and painter, Isaac Cruikshank. "His father's declining health made Robert Cruikshank's assistance in the studio imperative He did not execute many autographed caricatures until 1818 19, when the craze for velocipedes (early bicycles) and dandified dressing by men and women attracted his pencil [His] unflattering caricatures of the species between 1818 and the mid-1820s exposed their superficiality, their self-proclaimed exclusivity, and their often tawdry stratagems for dressing and living on slender means."From 1820 to 1827 Cruikshank produced at least 400 images In the later 1820s Robert Cruikshank illustrated a number of notable books. Often they were sequels to previous successes to which he and his brother George had contributed Beyond 1830 the records of Robert Cruikshank's achievements are scanty. Wood-engravings for a number of little books for minor publishers such as William Kidd were collected and reprinted as Facetiae (2 vols., 1831). These run the gamut of familiar subjects theatre, fashionable life, tourism, witches, and devils "As a boy Robert Cruikshank had injured his head in a riding accident; to that, as well as to whisky toddies, was attributed his marked decline in the later 1840s. His behaviour became more and more erratic: sober and sensible for weeks at a time, he would suddenly burst forth with some freakish prank or all-night carouse His family finances deteriorated During the winter of 1856 Robert Cruikshank caught bronchitis. Unable to throw off the infection, he died on 13 March in his modest lodgings" (Robert L. Patten, Cruikshank, (Isaac) Robert (1789 1856) , Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004).

$US9500

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