In the 1740s George Bickham the Younger became known as the most talented graphic satirist of his time, incorporating some fierce and controversial humour.
Before he developed this pioneering style, he learnt his trade in engraving by working with his father. He lived with his father George Bickham the Elder in Brentford End from 1712 to 1723, where youths were boarded and taught writing, drawing, and engraving at his house.
His father was an author, writing master and engraver of works on penmanship, flourishing in the period 1702-58. He was famous for his engravings of calligraphy in his ‘The Universal Penman’ series (1730-1750), containing examples by twenty-five contemporary writing-masters on 212 folio copperplates.
Between 1750 and 1754 George Bickham the Elder, published ‘The British Monarchy’, which is a collection of views of English and Welsh counties.
These were an exception to the orthodox style of map-making in that they were finely engraved picturesque views of the counties from a high vantage point and annotated with the names of towns and villages where he estimated their locations to be. In 1796 they were re-issued as 'A Curious Collection of Bird's-eye Views'. About 1746 the son had a thriving business in May's Buildings, Covent Garden, and was no longer signing himself ‘Junior’.
George Bickham the Younger had a lot to live up to with such a talented father, but he even surpassed him. Early in his career in the 1720s, he worked for his father and other publishers.
One of his first projects that he published himself was ‘The Musical Entertainer’, a series of engraved musical song sheets, first published in parts of four plates each and issued fortnightly between 1737 and 1739.
Each print is headed by an engraved vignette with scenes of contemporary life illustrative of the song, in a mature rococo style, some in the French manner after Watteau. It was the first work of its type in England and many more followed this initial resounding success.
George Bickham the Younger was one of the first English caricaturists, applying the grotesque for the purposes of satire and ridicule. This was term “graphic satire” is almost exclusively used when discussing a certain genre of eighteenth-century English prints. The ‘golden age of satire,’ as it is frequently called, produced a massive body of graphic work, dominated by masters such as William Hogarth, George Bickham the Younger and James Gillray.
In the above engravings on the top, George Bickham the Younger created a scathing political commentary by combining the prime minister, Sir Robert Walpole’s official portrait with a depiction of a colossus. At the time this print was made Walpole’s power and popularity was already beginning to unravel. The colossus of ancient times collapsed under its own enormous weight.
The engraving above, was part of a recent, ‘Rude Britannia’ exhibition at The Tate Gallery and the curator talks in this video of this The Idol-Worship engraving.
In ‘The History of British Comics’, there is a good description of the 1700 - 1878 Satarists, “There is a rather cheeky drawing from George Bickham the Younger entitled 'Orator H-y laying the independent Rump Ghosts'
“It has the orator Henley, in the centre, conjuring up the ghosts of executed Jacobites, among them the rear of Thomas Morgan. That is actually a speech band exiting from the young ladies behind!”
Several times he attracted the attention of the government, their agents watching him and they even raided his shop confiscating ‘obscene’ books.
Since those pioneering days of graphic satire in the 18th century, it is still as popular and important to us today, as Gerald Scarfe describes in this video about the recent Rude Britannia exhibition at The Tate Gallery.
George Bickham the Younger’s works were very varied, including such things as a tailor’s workshop:
“A tailor's workshop with a long window in front of which tailors are sitting cross-legged on a bench as they work; surrounded by an elaborate frame incorporating a pair of shears and other tailoring equipment, and, at the bottom, the coat of arms of the Merchant Taylor's Company.”
Here is an amusing engraving of a tailor made up of his materials:
In the 1750s he engraved the landscape gardens at Stowe and other tourist sites, including Hampton Court and Windsor, in prints and printed guides and simultaneously publishing pattern books for Gothic and Chinese garden architecture.
He also had the skill to copy classical artists in this engraving of the Holy Family:
Bickham died at his home in Kew Lane, Richmond, Surrey, on 21 June 1771, leaving his property to his widow, Elizabeth.
In this article I have provided only a brief introduction to George Bickham the Younger and his father, but to really appreciate their marvellous work, you can wander around, from here, the fine collection of prints by both Bickhams in The British Museum, enjoy the George Bickham prints. (Just click on each image and a very clear enlargement is shown.)
Timothy Clayton, ‘Bickham, George (c.1704–1771)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004
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