The Profaned Pencil
A History of British Political Caricature, 1600–1860
Helen PierceA sweeping history of British political caricature and its cultural power
The Profaned Pencil surveys the vivid and unruly world of British political caricature between 1600 and 1860. It follows the rise of graphic satire from polemical seventeenth-century broadsides to the exuberant prints of the Georgian era and the mass-market illustrated press of Victorian Britain. Caricature lay at the intersection of politics, art and the commercial print trade, with satirical images functioning as both entertainment and political commentary.
From attacks on monarchs and ministers to reflections on class, gender and war, caricature became a powerful and popular means of informing public debate. Illuminating the artists, technologies and markets that propelled its spread, Helen Pierce provides new insights into how caricature mediated authority, dissent and identity over two and a half transformative centuries.
A sweeping history of British political caricature and its cultural power
The Profaned Pencil surveys the vivid and unruly world of British political caricature between 1600 and 1860. It follows the rise of graphic satire from polemical seventeenth-century broadsides to the exuberant prints of the Georgian era and the mass-market illustrated press of Victorian Britain. Caricature lay at the intersection of politics, art and the commercial print trade, with satirical images functioning as both entertainment and political commentary.
From attacks on monarchs and ministers to reflections on class, gender and war, caricature became a powerful and popular means of informing public debate. Illuminating the artists, technologies and markets that propelled its spread, Helen Pierce provides new insights into how caricature mediated authority, dissent and identity over two and a half transformative centuries.
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The Profaned Pencil takes us on a tour of three centuries of British history through the lens of caricature. Helen Pierce’s fascinating account of what people in the past laughed at shows us that our ancestors were as uncertain about the boundaries of humour and mockery, critique and abuse, as we are today. This book presents an uncomfortable truth about caricature: its ability to amuse and disturb us in equal measure.
'Adam Morton, Reader in Early Modern British History, Newcastle University, and co-editor of The Power of Laughter and Satire in Early Modern Britain
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A thoughtful and fascinating book on the strangest of our visual arts. Helen Pierce has reopened caricature on her own terms and drawn a whole series of new lines through history. A book for anyone who likes funny, lurid and humiliating art forms.
'Dan Sperrin, Research Fellow in English, Trinity College, Cambridge, and author of State of Ridicule: A History of Satire in English Literature
Introduction: A Grave Affair
One An Abuse of Drawing
Two Beauties and Monstrosities
Three Burlesques and Fun Merchants
Four Rules for Ridicule
Five Modern Caricature
Six The Profaned Pencil
References
Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Photo Acknowledgements
Index
Helen Pierce is Senior Lecturer in Art History at the University of Aberdeen. She is the author of Unseemly Pictures: Graphic Satire and Politics in Early Modern England (2008).