George Cruikshank’s Festive Season
December 13, 2024
As we brace ourselves for the forthcoming festive season, let us contemplate George Cruikshank‘s illustrations of yuletide in London 1838-53 from his Comic Almanack which remind us how much has changed and also how little has changed. (You can click on any of these images to enlarge)
A swallow at Christmas
Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve
Christmas dining
Christmas bustle
Boxing day
Hard frost
A picture in the gallery
Theatrical dinner
The Parlour & the Cellar
New Year’s Eve
New Year’s birth
Twelfth Night – Drawing characters
January – Last year’s bills
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2 Responses
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So much detail in each one! Was the artist George any relation to Dan Cruikshank, who still lives in the area if I remember correctly?
Who-in-their-right-mind would NOT want to be part of that riotous Theatrical Dinner?
A rollicking event with wigs askew, costumes coming undone, the clatter of armor hitting the floor,
the shout of “more ALE, if you PLEASE……..!”, crowns and felt hats on the wrong heads, kilts
in an uproar (goodness!), and ladies spilling out of their corsets. Well, ‘course. Smoking, toasting, singing, reciting soliloquies at full volume, devilish proposals, and coy “why, sir!” refusals. And the Commedia clown arches above everyone, conducting and directing. Surely, the most prized invitation of the Season.
Hurrah and huzzah.