John Leech (caricaturist)

thumb|John Leech John Leech (caricaturist) John Leech (29 August 1817 – 29 October 1864) was an English caricaturist and illustrator, known for his cartoons published in Punch (magazine) Punch. He is also noteworthy as the first illustrator of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Quotes The dear Girls really must have some new Bonnets, for they cannot possibly wear those nasty, shabby, dirty, old winter things any longer. The Advent of Spring 1849 XVI Punch https://books.google.com/books?id=2UhIAQAAMAAJ&q=leech#v=onepage&q=advent%20of%20spring&f=false Pictures of Life and Character (1884) Cruel Fair One (to silent Partner). "Pray! have you no conversation?" Helping Him On Pictures of Life and Character: From the Collection of Mr. Punch Volume 6 Parchment-Paper Series D. Appleton 1884 https://books.google.com/books?id=Vv8-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA26 26 Brown. "So, you're going to marry old Mrs. Yellowboyce. Well, I think you're a dooced lucky fellah!"Jones. "By Jove, I don't think the luck is all on my side! If she finds money, hang it, I find blood and—haw—beauty!" The Marriage Question Pictures of Life and Character https://books.google.com/books?id=Vv8-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA59 59 Young Diana. "I think, sir, if you would be so good as to go first, and break the top rail, my pony would get over." Rather awkward for Tomkins Pictures of Life and Character https://books.google.com/books?id=Vv8-AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA73 73 Quotes about John Leech When between six and seven years of age, some of Leech's drawings were seen by the great John Flaxman Flaxman, and, after carefully looking at them and the boy, he said, 'That boy must be an artist; he will be nothing else or less.' This was said in full consciousness of what is involved in advising such a step. His father wisely, doubtless, thought otherwise, and put him to the medical profession at St Bartholomew's Hospital St. Bartholomew's, under Mr. Edward Stanley (surgeon) Stanley. He was very near being sent to Edinburgh, and apprenticed to Sir George Ballingall. John Brown (physician, born 1810 John Brown, M.D., John Leech John Leech, and other papers 4th Vol. 3 Horæ Subsecivæ Edinburgh David Douglas https://books.google.com/books?id=BldaAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA14 1–80 1882 (quote from p. 14) ... His stay of nine years at Charterhouse School Charterhouse never brought him nearer to the top of the school than the fifth form — the forms being at that time counted downwards, not upwards, as now. He had as a fellow-pupil the famous William Makepeace Thackeray, with whom he formed a friendship that ripened day by day, and never ceased until death parted them. It is said that Leech once had the intense happiness of hearing that when Thackeray was asked to name his dearest friend, he replied, after a few moments' thought, "John Leech." Frederick George Kitton, John Leech, Artist and Humourist: A Biographical Sketch Redway's shilling series George Redway London new, revised 1884 https://books.google.com/books?id=RKhbAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA10 10 A man of grave and almost melancholy cast of countenance, handsome withal, was John Leech; quiet, reserved, and gentlemanly in manner, a hearty hater of posing, and noise, and publicity. Save at the weekly dinner, he consorted but little with his colleagues on Punch, with the exception of Thackeray: he was intimate, at one time, with Dickens, to whom he gave a walking-stick inscribed "C. D., from J. L.," which Dickens often carried; with John Everett Millais Millais, with Mowbray Morris, and with Matthew James Higgins M. J. Higgins. He and Albert Richard Smith Albert Smith had been fellow medical students at the Middlesex Hospital, fellow assistants to that general practitioner who figures in Ledbury as "Mr. Rawkins,” but in later life there was not much in common between them. I fear Albert was a little too rowdy for Leech. Edmund Yates: His Recollections and Experiences Vol. 2 Richard Bentley & Son 1884 https://books.google.com/books?id=Qq4LKE15GGQC&pg=PA150 150–151 External links Author:John Leech The John Leech Punch magazine sketch archives Category:1817 births Category:1864 deaths Category:Cartoonists Category:Illustrators from England Category:People from London Category:A Christmas Carol