



Produced by David Widger from images generously made
available by The Internet Archive







FOUR HUNDRED HUMOROUS ILLUSTRATIONS

By George Cruikshank

With Portrait and Biographical Sketch

Second Edition

London

Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co Glasgow




BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

GEORGE CRUIKSHANK was born in London on the 27th of September, 1792.
His parents were of Scotch nationality. The father, namely, Isaac
Cruikshank, was an artist by profession, having considerable skill in
water-colour painting and etching. The mother was a Miss Macnaughten,
of Perth, a _protege_ of the Countess of Perth, and the possessor of
a small sum of money. She was a person of energetic temper and strong
will, and so thrifty that by saving she added considerably to her
original pecuniary possession. She was also careful to bring up her
children in a pious manner, being, along with them, a regular attendant
at the Scotch Church in Crown Court, Drury Lane.

The couple took up house in Duke Street, Bloomsbury, where two sons
and one daughter were burn. The elder son was born in 1789, named Isaac
Robert, and ultimately became an artist of considerable reputation,
but of much less originality in character and design than his younger
brother. George was born about three years later. In artistic work he
struck out in a new line, and although the difference between his
work and that of his father and brother was not in every case strongly
marked, still it was always sufficient to enable experts to select the
productions of the youngest from those of his two seniors, a distinctly
new and original vein appearing in them from the first.

While the three children were still quite young, the family removed to
No. 117 Dorset Street, Salisbury Square, Fleet Street, where the parents
let a portion of the house to lodgers. Here the father continued to
work