The Tucson citizen., 1902-11-17
ART OF CARICATURE
EVOLUTION AND INFLUENCE OF THE
NEWSPAPER CARTOON.

Egyptians Used GrOtesque Pictures
to Emphasize Their Satire - The
Eighteenth Century Craze.
The story is told of an able of the
seventeenth century who was as de-
formed in figure as he was ridiculous
i'll dress, and as sensitive about his
physical deformity as he was vain of
his eccentric attire, that while serving
mass one morning he observed a smile
Of contempt on the face of one of the
courtiers present and determined to
avenge himself by serving process
upon 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
reason for his mirth, made a hasty
sketch of the hunchback abbe, exag-
gerating in size the six black caps and
the waistcoats in which he was wont
to appear, and when he was solemnly
| asked to show cause for his unseemly
mirth and indignity to the holy church
he suddenly displayed before his judges
the caricature of the able as his "ex-
cuse" The likeness was so excellent
and the cartoon so grotesque that the
entire court fell to laughing, and the
accused was liberated without repri-
mand.
This is the first authentic case of the
power of the cartoon in hall of jus
| tice, but it illustrates the power of the
pencil in depicting the follies Of the
| foolish and the affectations of the arti-
! 6cial.
| There is no telling when the art Of
caricature began. There are 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
nnmberless examples of 'grotesque-
ries'' which, curiously enough, were
used 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 oyerrunning
into Holland and thence across the
claanDel into England, the food Of carl
catufists carried everything before 1t,
and it is safe>to say that we read the
history of the times with clearer vision
| and, sWith more accuracy Of detail for
the mirror which caricaturists held up
to reflect the striking peculiarities of
the men and events passing before 1t.
| Gautier mentions a Spanish cartoon
list. Francisco Gaya Lucientes, mix
ture OF Rembrandt, Vatican and Ra-
belais, who preceded the two great car
icaturists of the latter half of the
eighteenth century. George Cruikshank
In England and M. 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 it's subtitle Of
the London Chariyari. 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 a dozen
men Of lesser name kept Great Britain
in good humor for two generations.
1t has been reserved for America,
however, to bring forth 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-
aggerate 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
i fops of the court as they passed and
| fasten in his memory every feature by
which q man would be recognized by
his acquaintances. 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 10
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 cartoonfsts than elsewhere. The
very quickness with which we see the
point Of joke demands equal facility
in portraying drollery in cartoon. We
| sketch boldly and leave much Of the
unnecessary detail to our, slower cous
sns. Then, too, our public events hap
pen with such startling rapdity that a
/ eartoonfof yesterdays doings would be
dat 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
him what he is, the quickest and
brightest of men.-Thomas Mast in