Caricature is a branch of satire, and the word is equally used to express either a pictorial or a descriptive representation, in which, while a general likeness is retained, peculiarities are exaggerated so as to make the person or thing ridiculous. Although sometimes applied to literary descriptions, the word caricature, when used alone, is generally understood to relate to design. Caricature being a natural expression of natural feelings, must be as old as man himself, and possibly the eccentric markings found on rocks and in caves are not entirely due to bad drawing, but were intended in certain cases to ridicule the artist's enemies. Examples of caricature have been found in the art of the Egyptians, the Greeks, and the Romans. Fortunately some Egyptian examples have been preserved, showing that the most ancient masters of the art did not spare even the sacred person of the king. One papyrus (the Satirical Papyrus of Turin), published as the last plate in Lepsius' Auswahl, contains rough sketches caricaturing the concerts depicted on the walls of the palace, also the battles, and particularly a scene on the walls of Ramses' pavilion, where the king is depicted playing chess with a girl of the harem. The king is drawn as a lion, the girl as a gazelle, and the whole has an undeniable humour in it that defies the touch of time. The popular pictures of the 'Dance of Death' in the middle ages may be looked upon in the light of caricatures. Although so considerable an antiquity may be claimed for the art, the name itself is quite modern, and being introduced from the Italian, it continued its foreign form for many years. The meaning is an overloaded representation, and the word is formed from the verb caricare, 'to load.'
One of the first writers to use the word caricatura was Sir Thomas Browne (1605-82), in his posthumous work on Christian Morals; and in the Spectator (1712) the Italian form is still retained: 'Those burlesque pictures which the Italians called caricaturas, where the art consists in preserving, amidst distorted proportions and aggravated features, some distinguishing likeness of the person, but in such a manner as to transform the most agreeable beauty into the most odious monster.' The word is not in Johnson's Dictionary (1755), but in 1788 Francis Grose wrote Rules for Drawing Caricatures, a work which was translated into French. Pictorial satires on the clergy were not uncommon in the middle ages, and in the reigns of Henry
VIII. and Elizabeth the pope was frequently satirised. During the Civil Wars, the satirists to some extent thrived in England. The reign of William III. again was a period of political satire, when Romeyn de Hooghe was the chief artistic champion of the king of England.
Modern caricature, however, may be said practically to commence with Hogarth (1697-1764), who lashed social vices instead of confining himself to the portrayal of political disagreements. Hogarth was succeeded by a host of talented artists, whose productions became the rage. Of these the most prominent were John Collet (1725-80), Henry William Bunbury (1750-1811), Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827), George Moutard Woodward, John Heinrich Ramberg (1763-1840), James Gillray (1757-1815), styled 'the prince of caricaturists,' Denis Dighton (1792-1827), and James Sayer, commonly called Pitt's caricaturist. Of these Gillray and Rowlandson stand out as the chief. Bunbury's works were engraved by Rowlandson, who gave them much of his own style. The history of the time (grossly exaggerated, it is true) is to be found written in the works of these caricaturists. To these engravings we must go to understand the manners of the time, as well as to see what was the contemporary public opinion of Bute and Wilkes, of Pitt and Fox, and the political leaders of the Georgian era. George IV. was the object of satirical prints to an extraordinary degree. So great was the popularity of these caricatures, that shops were opened for their exclusive sale, and particular publishers devoted themselves to this business alone. Mention should also be made of John Kay, whose portraits illustrate so remarkably the history of Edinburgh life at the end of the last and beginning of the present century.
To eyes educated by the refined satire of the present day, the works of Gillray and Rowlandson and their followers appear singularly coarse. These caricatures are vigorous, but they are frequently disgusting to our taste. With the early part of the present century a complete change in the character of caricature took place, and for this ascendancy of good feeling we are largely indebted to the two Doyles, John and Richard, father and son.
John Doyle commenced his political sketches in 1829, and they became famous as the caricatures of H.B. It is scarcely possible to imagine two styles of art more distinct than those exhibited respectively in the caricatures of Gillray and Doyle. H.B.'s sketches are sometimes styled weak, but they exhibit a vivid picture of the party politics of the period over which the series extend. The Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, and the other leaders of the time stand out before us now as they appeared to their contemporaries. In the works of the older caricaturists likenesses were to some extent retained, but the persons caricatured were usually depicted as monsters rather than as human beings. In the caricatures of H.B. the resemblance was perfect, and it was the position rather than the person that was distorted. There was plenty of satire, but it was of a refined character. When H.B.'s sketches were discontinued, the weekly periodical Punch was started (1841), and Richard Doyle designed the well-known cover. In its pages may be seen the finest examples of delicate caricature by Leech, Keene, Tenniel, Du Maurier and other artists of repute, that have been produced. It may be remarked that our modern Hogarth, George Cruikshank, lived through the periods distinguished by the two styles of caricature. His earliest satires are in the manner of Rowlandson, while his later ones are in the more refined style of the present day. A return to the more robust style of the older caricaturists has been made by Pellegrini and others in Vanity Fair, where the portraits of celebrated men have been drawn in an exaggerated manner, so as to produce a ludicrous effect without essentially destroying the likeness, thus carrying out the original idea of caricature, without the grossness which was so generally united to the exaggeration of the older caricaturists. The American representative of Punch is the vigorous and clever Puck, in which the political cartoon is coloured. Equally well known are the Fliegende Blätter of Munich, and the less artistic Kladderadatsch of Berlin. The most eminent American caricaturists have been Thomas Nast and J. F. Keppler, both of German birth.
Caricature in France may be said to date from about 1830, from the foundation by Philipon of La Caricature, and the greatest names are still those of Daumier, Gavarni, Grandville, and Monnier. Daumier combined in a remarkable degree the sense of form with that genius for happy exaggeration which is characteristic of the highest types of caricature. Monnier has secured his own immortality in that of his creation, Joseph Prudhomme. Grandville is, by universal consent, superb in portraiture. Other names are those of Decamps, Traviès, Charlet, Raffet, Isabey, Giraud, Carle Vernet, Cham, and Grévin.
A History of Caricature and Grotesque in Literature and Art was published by Thomas Wright in 1865, but the most important work on the subject is the Catalogue of Satirical Prints and Drawings in the British Museum (with Hawkins's valuable memoranda). Parton's Caricature and other Comic Arts (New York, 1877) deserves mention. Everitt published in 1886 English Caricaturists of the 19th Century. Joseph Grego has published two copiously illustrated works on caricatures, one devoted to the productions of Gillray, and the other to those of Rowlandson. Several works on the history of caricature have been published in French, among the latest being Dayot's Maîtres de la Caricature Française au XIXe Siècle (1888), and Grand Carteret's Les Mœurs et la Caricature en France (1888).