Hablot Knight Browne
Hablot Knight Browne ( July 12, 1815 in Lambeth near London , † July 8, 1882 ) was an English artist, known as Phiz , and illustrator of the books by Charles Dickens , Charles Lever and Harrison Ainsworth .
Life
Browne was born into a Huguenot family in Lambeth (near London). He was the 14th of Catherine and William Browne Loder's 15 children. According to Valerie Browne Lester, Phiz was actually the illegitimate son of his supposed eldest sister Kate and Captain Nicholas Hablot of Napoleon's Imperial Guard . There is some uncertainty about when to give birth. July 12, 1815 is the specification of Valerie Browne Lester, his great-great-granddaughter, and John Buchanan-Brown in his book Phiz !: illustrator of Dickens' world . The baptism certificate of St Mary's Church, Lambeth, Surrey, England, dated December 21, 1815, states June 11, 1815, as does the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition), June 15, 1815 ( Dictionary of National Biography ).
When Browne was seven years old, his father, William Browne, left the family, changed his name to Breton, and sailed with embezzled funds to Philadelphia , where he was known for his watercolors. William Browne was then pronounced dead by his wife Catherine.
Browne was apprenticed to engraver William Find , in whose studio he received his only artistic training. However, it was unsuitable for engraving; Although he received a Society of Arts Prize for a drawing by John Gilpin in 1833 , he gave up engraving the following year and began other artistic work with the aim of becoming a painter.
Artistic career
In the spring of 1836 he met Charles Dickens, who was looking for an illustrator for The Pickwickier . Browne had illustrated his Sunday under Three Heads brochure . In the original Pickwickier edition (between early 1836 and late 1837), the first seven plates were drawn by Robert Seymour , who committed suicide in April 1836. The next two records were from Robert William Buss .
Browne signed his first two etchings with "Nemo", but the third with "Phiz", his future pseudonym. It should harmonize better with Dickens' pseudonym "Boz".
Phiz developed the character Sam Weller graphically as Seymour Pickwick had developed. Dickens and Phiz became good friends. Other Dickens characters created by Phiz included Squeers, Micawber, Guppy, Major Bagstock, Mrs. Gamp, Tom Pinch, and David Copperfield.
The best known Dickens' books illustrated by Phiz are David Copperfield , The Pickwickier , Dombey and Son , Martin Chuzzlewit, and Bleak House . Browne made several drawings for the punch and designed the envelope, which was used for 18 months from January 1842. He also contributed to the Punch Pocket Books .
In addition to his work for Dickens, he illustrated more than twenty novels by Lever Phiz (including Harry Lorrequer , Charles O'Malley , Jack Hinton and Knight of Gwynne ) as well as Harrison Ainsworth and Frank Smedley . Mervyn Clitheroe by Ainsworth is one of the artist's best known works. In 1867 he was partially paralyzed due to illness. After his recovery he produced many woodblock prints. In 1878 he received a pension from the Royal Academy of Arts . His health gradually deteriorated until he died on July 8, 1882.
Most of Browne's work was etched onto steel plate because it ran much larger than copper plate. Browne was annoyed by copies of some of his etchings that were transferred to stone by the publishers and printed as lithograph reproductions. To prevent this from happening, he used a machine that drew a series of lines across the slab and thus achieved a hue comparable to a mezzotint , which at the time could practically not be transferred to stone.
Four of his illustrations were issued as special postage stamps by the Royal Mail for Charles Dickens' 200th birthday in 2012 .
gallery
Browne, photographed by Sarony , c. 1870s
Blue Plaque , Ladbroke Grove, London
literature
- John Forster, Life of Charles Dickens (London, 1871–1874)
- FG Kitton, Phiz: A Memoir (London, 1882)
- Valerie Browne Lester, "Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens" (London, 2004) ISBN 0-7011-7742-X and ISBN 1-84413-534-9 (2006 edition)
- Phiz, and John Buchanan-Brown. 1978. Phiz! illustrator of Dickens' world . New York: C. Scribner's sons.
- Buchanan-Brown, John: Phiz !: the book ill. of Hablot Knight Browne / John Buchanan-Brown , Newton Abbot [u. a.]: David & Charles, 1978, ISBN 0-7153-7507-5
- MH. Spielmano, The History of Punch (London, 1895).
- D. Croal Thomson, Hablot Knight Browne, Phiz: Life and Letters With one hundred thirty illustrations. Publisher: Chapman and Hall, London, 1884
- Frederic George Kitton: Charles Dickens and his Illustrators Publisher: George Redway, London, 1899
Web links
- Hablot Knight Browne on The Victorian Web.
- " Phiz, Dickens and London " —Valerie Browne Lester's lecture at Gresham College.
- " The man who made Dickens fizz "
Individual evidence
- ^ Valerie Browne Lester: Phiz, Dickens and London . Gresham College. November 28, 2006. Retrieved July 18, 2012.
- ↑ Charles Dickens . Royal Mail. Archived from the original on July 13, 2012. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved July 18, 2012.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Browne, Hablot Knight |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Phiz (pseudonym) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English illustrator |
| DATE OF BIRTH | July 12, 1815 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lambeth near London , England |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 8, 1882 |