f
1827_; _A Dandy Fainting, or an Exquisite in Fits_; _The Broom Sold_
(Lord Brougham); _Household Troops_ (a skit on domestic servants); and
_A Tea-party, or English Manners and French Politeness_, all of which
may be dismissed with the remark that they are the worst specimens of
Robert's work which could probably have been selected.

SCARCITY OF ROBERT'S SATIRES.

With the year 1825, our record of Isaac Robert Cruikshank's caricature
work somewhat abruptly terminates. We cannot assert that after that date
it wholly ceased, but, inasmuch as we have selected those we have named
from a mass of some of the rarest pictorial satires published between
the years 1800 and 1830, I think we are fairly justified in assuming
that after this period his contributions to this branch of comic art
became fewer. If this be the fact, it confirms the conclusion at which
we have arrived, that at this time caricature had begun its somewhat
hasty decline. Those I have named comprise over seventy examples; and
their value, which is great on account of their scarcity, will be
increased by the possibility that in the conception and execution of
some of them the mind and hand of Robert might have been assisted by
those of the more celebrated brother. "When my dear brother Robert,"
says George in writing to the compiler of the famous catalogue of his
own works, "when my dear brother Robert (who in his latter days omitted
the Isaac) left off portrait painting, and took almost entirely to
designing and etching, I assisted him at first to a great extent in some
of his drawings on wood and his etchings." If this be the case, it is at
least possible that he lent the assistance of his cunning hand and
original fancy to the preparation of some of these contributions to
pictorial satire. It appears to us, therefore, that a just idea of
George's own work as an artist can scarcely be arrived at (especially
his share of the famous "Life in London") until we have first considered
the early work of himself and his brother Robert as graphic satirists
and caricaturists. They were closely associated in artistic work during
their early career; and it was not until both had given up social and
political satire, and devoted themselves to the then comparatively new
field of book illustration and etching on copper, that the superiority,
originality, and genius of the younger brother became so manifest and
incontrovertible.

FOOTNOTES:

[50] The name give