The Art of Satire: London in Caricature [Hardcover]

The following is part of Steven Barfield's book review in "Literary London":

Chapter 1 of the book presents an overview of some of the main themes of satiric caricature and explores the role of London as a subject in some detail, while offering a survey of the way the development of the book trade and print technology in London in turn affected the growth of satire and its relationship with its audience. There is in this connection a useful map showing the location of London print sellers of satire before 1830 at the end of the book (pp. 222-223). The book then moves to a series of chronological chapters depicting the history of satire, amply illustrated by examples that nevertheless do not ignore changes in the broader material and visual culture of the city and their consequences for satire.

Chapter 2, inevitably, examines 'The Age of Hogarth', and while the earthy nativism of Britain's greatest satiric artist and printmaker cannot be ignored as his innovations were so singularly impressive and influential on succeeding caricaturists, Bills does succeed in placing him within the context of the admittedly lesser, but unjustly forgotten, figures that were his contemporaries.

Chapter 3 examines the period after Hogarth's death, and in particular how the founding of the Royal Academy divorced 'high' art from the popular satirical print, and subsequently explores the work of Gillray and Rowlandson whose interests paralleled the development of the West End of London as a centre of metropolitan pleasure.

Chapter 4 focuses on Rowlandson's work alone as a distinctive portrayer of the comic topography of London's varied street-scenes--perhaps less atavistic and morally judgemental than Hogarth, he is also more conscious of the social networks uniting the different classes of people in the capital.

Chapter 5, 'Progress and Transition: Cruikshank and Regency London', demonstrates how in a period of social and political turmoil and political transition, satire became harnessed to the conflicts of the time and to agitation for democratisation and reform. A period dominated by a mad king (George III) and an almost universally maligned Prince Regent must surely have been a gift to any caricaturist; however, more significant was the change from the dominance of print-sellers and individual satirical prints, typical of the 18th Century commercial pattern to the domination of booksellers and books and magazines which contained satirical material. Equally important was the recognition, often twinned with anxiety by socially-minded satirists, of the growth of London as metropolis and the technologies of modernity, as shown in Cruickshank's The Railway Dragon (1845) or March of the Bricks. Victoria ascended the throne in 1837 and Punch was founded in 1841.

The period of 'Victorian Satire' (Chapter 6) ushered in many changes and in particular saw the growth of 'tamer' (in the sense of being more respectable and less filled with populist prejudice and phobia) and more bourgeois publications. Changes which had begun in the Regency period continued and solidified in the Victorian period: 'Comic magazines became weekly periodicals, mass production increased and the news stand effectively replaced print and booksellers as the main distributor of satiric images' (p. 170). Satire, if tamer than in the age of Hogarth, was more politically progressive, conscious of the issue of social class and also often closer to journalism than to the twin desires of 18th century satirists to outrage and titillate their audience. Caricature portraits also became closer to an art form, while simultaneously preparing the way for what in the next century would become the celebrity photograph.

The book concludes with an afterward that does a little to take the story into the twentieth and twenty-first century; yet while the parallels are sometimes perceptive, the brevity of this section is disappointing. The section feels as if it is tacked on and outside of the historical scope of the book proper.