George Cruikshank’s Festive Season
December 5, 2021
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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The young man spilling the drinks over the old lady was completely blotto but it was Christmas Eve . Far better there than being pulled out of the frozen pond .
Greetings from Boston,
GA, I love George Cruikshank’s work displaying his artistic dexterity and understanding of human foibles. “Christmas Eve” and “Christmas Dinner” may have been among his sketches for A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
So merry!
Surely, these magnificent engravings were “front and center” as the inspiration for the vintage “Christmas Carol” movie that we love so much. Part of our yearly enjoyment is screening the Alistair Sim version — and, by now, we know the dialog and dialects (!!!) so well, we can recite them right along with the movie. Every detail — The bed curtains! The mullioned windows in the old storefronts! The night caps! The Fezziwig festivities! Just wonderful.
Cruikshank’s work lives on, delighting us all.
Thank you, GA.