260 ANIMAL ARTISANS 



The origin of the art of animal caricature, if, like 

 Mr. Herbert Spencer, we go back to origins, seems 

 to have been double. Gods were drawn as men with 

 animals' heads, to give them the dignified attributes 

 of the eagle, the bull, or the lion, or men were drawn 

 with the faces of less reputable beasts for the opposite 

 reasons. Caricature seized on both methods for its 

 own purposes, and in its earlier treatment did not 

 differ greatly from that which drew the " trusty 

 servant " beloved of Wykehamists with a pig's face, 

 because he was not " nice " in his eating, long ears 

 to overhear, and a locked tongue for prudence' sake. 



But modern art has added a third phase the 

 simple drawing of animals as they are, or with small 

 accessories of costume, drawn with such nice observa- 

 tion of the humour of animal form and expression 

 that it is perhaps the most effective of any. Some 

 of the very best examples of this, the highest form of 

 animal caricature, are the drawings of Sir F. C. Gould, 

 Mr. Shepherd, and the admirable illustrations to the 

 " Peter Rabbit " books. 



But these are all of comparatively recent date. 

 For very many years Sir John Tenniel was the best 

 and almost the only exponent of this branch of his 

 art. In his cartoons the British lion appeared more 

 often than any other beast, but it is very rarely re- 

 presented as a comic animal. The bear and the fox 

 lend -themselves better than any other creature to 

 this veteran caricaturist's feeling for animal humour. 

 The latter is the hero of two out of a series of three 

 cartoons on the relations of England and Germany in 



