The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1902-06-06
ART OF CARICATURE
EVOLUTION AND INFLUENCE OF THE
NEWSPAPER CARTOON.

u,.o Ancient Greeks. Romans ana
Egyptians Used Grotesque Pictures
:. Emuhasize Their Satire - The
rigI,teenth Century Craze.
The story is told of an able of the
seventeenth century who was as de-
formed in figure as he was ridiculous
l., dress. and as sensitive about his
nhvsical deformity as he was vain OF
b;s eccentric attire, that while serving
mass one morning he observed a smile
81 contempt on the face Of one of the
ooprters present and determined to
ovenge himself by serving a process
mon him for appearance in court the
following day.
The offender, NJ. de Lasson by name,
knowing that things would go hard
with him unless he could show some
roason for his mirth, made hasty
sketch of the hunchback able, exag-
gerating in size the six black caps and
+ba woistcoats in which he was wont
IN appear. and when he was solemnly
asked TO show cause for his unseemly
mirth and indignity to the holy church
no suddenly displayed before his judges
rho caricature of the able as his ''eX-
cuse" The likeness was so excellent
and the cartoon so grotesque that the
antire court fell to laughing. and the
accused was liberated without a repri-
mand.
G,.e4 nttfl,pn+io OF bn
mower of the cartoon in Il hall of jus
flee. but it illustrates the power of the
mcneil in depicting the follies of the
foolish and the affectations of the arti-
fetal.
There is no telling when the art of
caricature began. There are a number
of grotesques that have come down to
us from earliest Egyptian times. The
Greeks employed pictures to emphasize
their satire, and so did the Romans
All through the middle ages there were
numberless examples of "grotesque
rics" which, curiously enough, were
uscd in enforcing the doctrines of the
church by means of satirizing the devil.
But the eighteenth century was the
heyday of the cartoon.
BEGINNING in France and overrunning
into Holland and thence across the
channel into England, the flood of carl
caturists carried everything before it,
and it is safe to say that we read the
history of the times with clearer vision
and with more accuracy of detail for
the mirror which caricaturists held up
to reflect the striking peculiarities of
the men and events passing before it.
Gautier mentions Spanish cartoon
list Francisco Gaya Y Lucientes. Il mix
ture of Rembrandt, Vatican and RAJ
belais, who prethded the two great car
icatursts of the latter half of the
eighteenth century. George Cruikshank
in England and NJ. Charlet in France.
Charlet is known as the father of mod
ern social caricature and holds as good
title to his position as does Philipau to
that of the father of comic journalism.
with lie Charivari, the strongest paper
of its kind. Then came Punch in Eng
land, which still retains its subtitle of
the London Charivari, for years the
faithful if not the most highly polished
reflector of British life. Upon its staff
John Leech, Richard Doyle, John Fen
mel, George du Maurier and Il dozen
men of lesser name kept Great Britain
in good humor for two generations.
1t has been reserved for America,
however, to bring forth a new race of
caricaturists, which for lack of better
title may be called the personal car
tooniSts men who seize upon the char
acteristics of an individual and so ex-
asgcrate them that the subjects of the
cartoons are known by the most promi-
nent features in their physical, mental
or moral makeup.
True there was one man in London
hundred years ago, Gillray by name,
who had this faculty of dissecting his
subject until he found his weakest
point and then numerically pricking it
with his drawing pencil. but with him
the race died out, to be reincarnated in
America. Gillray was close observer
OF people and events. He would sit in
his publishers window and watch the
tops of tine court as they passed and
fasten in his memory every feature by
which man would be recognized by
his acquaintance. He remembered ev-
cry story that related to the traits of
character of those in the public eye,
and the st. James street of 1900 is
faithfully reproduced in his art.
Perhaps we Americans look at the
droll side of life more than other peo-
PIE, but certain it is we have more and
better cartoonists than elsewhere. The
very quickness with which we see the
point of a joke demands equal facility
IN portraying drollery in cartoon. We
sketch boldly and leave much Of the
Unnecessary detail to our slower cOus-
ms Then, too, our public events hap
pen with such startling rapidity that
cartoon of yesterdays doings would be
Hat today. and we must keep very
much alive and be ready for political
change overnight
In other words, the alert American
must have depicted in his cartoon the
very traits of character that have made
nm what he is. the quickest and