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<TITLE>Cruikshank Influence</TITLE>
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"The Last Chance"
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George Cruikshank's illustration for Oliver Twist (1939)
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and
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Mr Vieux Bois (1839 version)
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<A HREF="earlycomics.html#toepffer"><IMG SRC="toepffer_compare.cruikshank.jpg"border="0"></a>
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(Sent to the Platinum Comics mailinglist by Thierry Smolderen)
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<BR>
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<BR>
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Rodolphe's father, Adam, who was an excellent caricaturist in the english
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tradition, made a trip to england (during Rodolphe's youth) and evidently
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brought back some material from there. The influence of Rowlandson is
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particularly visible in the aquatint by Adam Toepffer . The Toepffers were
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anglophiles in a town (Geneva) where a lot of rich englishmen visited, and I
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guess there was a constant flux of books between the capitals of Europe, as
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book were (and still are), the perfect token of friendship from individual
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to individual.As someons said in this thread, it's probably safe to take for
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granted that most of the actors concerned by political caricature,
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illustrated books, printed sketchbooks, picture-novels etc. where aware of
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each other's work.
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<BR>
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There is a tantalizing Toepffer-Cruikshank-Grandville triangle of reciprocal
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influence (Cruikshank's career of course, was long enough to permit early
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influence on someone that he would later be influenced by). I submit this to
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you all (I'll try to check it out myself at the CNBDI this afternoon) :
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- one image is from the 1839 edition of Mr Vieux Bois : it shows Mr Vieux
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Bois on a roof, escaping from jail : notice the general framing, the
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chimney, the rope, the dog.
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- all these elements are found in one of Cruishank's best known
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illustrative work for Oliver Twist : Sike's escape ("The last chance"),
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also published in 1839.
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<BR>
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All the elements are there : the dog, the chimney, the rope, the escape
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theme, the framing etc.
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<BR>
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It could be a coincidence, of course. Or maybe there is a "third party"
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influence. Anyway, here's is what Vogler writes about this image in
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"Graphics Works of George Cruikshank" (Dover) :
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"The Last Chance : After Dickens had written the text for this
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illustration, he wrote to Cruikshank "that the scene of Sikes' escape will
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not do for illustration. It is so very complicated, with such a multituyde
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of figures, such violent action and torch-light to boot, that a small plate
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could not take in the slightest idea of it". Notwhistanding this comment,
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the artist was able to catch in roughly a four-by-four-inch etching a great
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deal of the atmosphere surrounding Sikes' escape. Although the crowd below
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is not shown, its presence and mood are sensed and the dynamics of the scene
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felt because the window watchers and the expression on Sikes' face. The
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theme of hanging isdramatically foreshadowed in this scene as are the theme
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s of confinement and suffocation in the next."
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Now, the catch : according to Thierry Groensteen's preface of the Mr Vieux
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Bois reediton for le Seuil, the 1839 edition of Mr Vieux Bois was revised in
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depth by T<>pffer so as to distance his work from pirates copies.
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Was this scene in the original version (so pre-dating Cruikshank's version),
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or was it a new adjunction ?
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<BR>
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I favor the first hypothese (Cruikshank was influenced by Toepffer), but
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maybe those of you who have the pirated versions could check.
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This is of importance to me, because the fact that Cruikshank would have
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used a typically slapstick sequence by Toepffer as a model for an action
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that Dickens saw as impossible to represent in a four-by-four-inch etching
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would show that at least in his these action or slapstick scenes, Toepffer
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was exploiting a new graphical-space that held useful solutions for
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illustrators.
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<BR>
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Thierry Smolderen
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