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George Montbard I: A communard´s career in London
George Montbard (real name: Charles Auguste Loye) was one of the most brillant and versatile illustrators of the 19th century. The staunch republican started his career as a political caricaturist during the imperial rule of Napoleon III. He worked for “La Rue”, the legendary antiautorical magazin of his friend Jules Valles. The anarchist author assembled […]
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Gustave Doré in the London Tradition – Reportage III: Third Men
Not translated: 5) Die dritten Männer In Dorés Illustrationswerk wurde die gnostische Befindlichkeit der Entfremdung und Dislokalität erstmals als eine grundlegende Erfahrung des urbanen Lebens ins Bild gesetzt. Und die grafischen Mittel, die er dabei zum Einsatz brachte, waren ungleich komplexer und subtiler als die der Künstler des Expressionismus und Futurismus, die ihm in dieser […]
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Gustave Doré in the tradition of London – Reportage II: Dreadful Paris
Not translated: 3) Die Scheußlichkeiten von Paris 4) Praetorium 3) Die Scheußlichkeiten von Paris Die Idee, Dantes Pilgerfahrt auf zeitgenössische urbane Verhältnisse umzumünzen, war allerdings so neu nicht. Dorés Londoner Inferno hatte seine Entsprechung in Honoré de Balzacs literarischem Monumentalopus La Comédie humaine, das die Hölle Dantes in Paris lokalisierte. Der französische Dichter stellte […]
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Gustave Doré in the Tradition of London-Reportage I: Hell Circles of the Metropolis
Not translated: 1) Einleitung 2) Die Hölle London 1) Einleitung An dem Porträt der britischen Metropole London. A Pilgrimage hat Gustav Doré auf Einladung seines Freundes, des englischen Publizisten Blanchard Jerrold, insgesamt fünf Jahre lang gearbeitet von der ersten Projektierung 1867 bis zur Drucklegung, die erst Ende 1872 abgeschlossen war.(1) Auch im angelsächsischen Sprachbereich stand […]
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The Cries of London; exhibiting several of the itinerant traders of antient and modern times. London 1839 , Posthumous Edition
“Now as the Cries of London are sometimes the topic of conversation, the author of the present work is not without the hope of finding, amongst the more aged as well as juvenile readers, many to whom it may prove acceptable, inasmuch as it not only exhibits several Itinerant Traders and other persons of various […]
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John Thomas Smith and the Invention of Investigative Social Reportage IV: Inner Africa
Abriged version. For footnotes please see the more detailed German version. 6) Inner Africa For Smith, the street cries pictures had a decisive advantage in comparison to the costume book. It was a speaking medium associated with the acoustic notion of original sound meant to suggest directness and authenticity. Every vendor was attributed a unique […]
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Vagabondiana; or, Anecdotes of Mendicant Wanderers through the Streets of London; Drawn from the Life, London 1817
In the first decade of the 19th century the bourgeoisie felt increasingly pestered by the exploding army of beggars and pedlars. A royal commission of inquiry was appointed to remedy this, and in 1815 published a first Mendicity and Vagrancy Report. The commission´s recommendations resulted in countering the problem of homelessness and beggary with strict […]
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John Thomas Smith and the Invention of Investigative Social Reportage III: The Cries of London
Abriged version. For footnotes please see the more detailed German version. 5) The Cries of London In Great Britain, the years after Waterloo were characterised by a deep economic depression. Big cities were flooded by jobless persons, war invalids and discharged soldiers. While visiting London in 1820, Théodore Gericault captured the descending social misery in […]
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Slums in the outskirts of London, 1797
“Remarks on Rural Scenery” was created by John Thomas Smith with the support of his student John Constable. It consists of a sequence of twenty etchings that were all made “after nature” and depict the most various kinds of rural housings for the poor on the periphery of the exploding metropolis of London. The places […]
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John Thomas Smith and the Invention of Investigative Social Reportage II: Republican Palaces
Abriged version. For footnotes please see the more detailed German version. -3) Republican Palaces -4) Digression I: Blake’s Cottage 3) Republican Palaces Remarks on Rural Scenery is Smith’s shortest publication. It consists of a sequence of twenty etchings that were all made “after nature” and depict the most various kinds of rural housings for […]