The trial of Dreyfus, Vanity Fair, 1899-11-23

''Vanity Fair'' was a British weekly magazine that was published from 1868 to 1914. Founded by

Thomas Gibson Bowles Thomas Gibson Bowles (15 January 1842 – 12 January 1922), known generally as Tommy Bowles, was an English publisher and parliamentarian. He founded the magazines '' The Lady'' and the English '' Vanity Fair'', and became a Member of Parliam ...

in London, the magazine included articles on fashion, theatre, current events as well as word games and serial fiction. The cream of the period’s "society magazines", it is best known for its witty prose and

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...

s of famous people of Victorian and

Edwardian The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

society, including artists, athletes, royalty, statesmen, scientists, authors, actors, business people and scholars. Taking its title from Thackeray's popular satire on early 19th-century British society, ''Vanity Fair'' was not immediately successful and struggled with competition from rival publications. Bowles then promised his readers 'Some Pictorial Wares of an entirely novel character', and on 30 January 1869, a full-page caricature of

Benjamin Disraeli Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British statesman and Conservative politician who twice served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He played a central role in the creation ...

appeared. This was the first of over 2,300 caricatures to be published. According to the National Portrait Gallery in London, "''Vanity Fairs illustrations, instantly recognizable in terms of style and size, led to a rapid increase in demand for the magazine. It gradually became a mark of honour to be the 'victim' of one of its numerous caricaturists. Bowles’s witty accompanying texts, full of insights and innuendoes, certainly contributed towards the popularity of these images".

History

Subtitled "A Weekly Show of Political, Social and Literary Wares", it was founded in 1868 by

, who aimed to expose the contemporary vanities of Victorian society. Colonel Fred Burnaby provided £100 of the original £200 capital, and inspired by Thackeray's popular satire on early 19th-century British society suggested the title ''Vanity Fair''. The first issue appeared in London on 7 November 1868. It offered its readers articles on fashion, current events, the theatre, books, social events and the latest scandals, together with serial fiction,

word game Word games (also called word game puzzles or word search games) are spoken, board, or video games often designed to test ability with language or to explore its properties. Word games are generally used as a source of entertainment, but can ...

s and other trivia. Bowles wrote much of the magazine himself under various pseudonyms, such as "Jehu Junior", but contributors included

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...

, Arthur Hervey, Willie Wilde, Jessie Pope, P. G. Wodehouse (who also wrote for the unrelated Condé Nast magazine of the same name) and Bertram Fletcher Robinson (who was editor from June 1904 to October 1906). Lewis Carroll created a series of word ladder puzzles, which he then called "Doublets", which first appeared in the 29 March 1879 issue. Thomas Allinson bought the magazine in 1911 from

Frank Harris Frank Harris (14 February 1855 – 26 August 1931) was an Irish-American editor, novelist, short story writer, journalist and publisher, who was friendly with many well-known figures of his day. Born in Ireland, he emigrated to the United State ...

, by which time it was failing financially. He failed to revive it and the final issue of ''Vanity Fair'' appeared on 5 February 1914, after which it was merged into ''Hearth and Home''.

Caricatures

A full-page, colour lithograph of a contemporary celebrity or dignitary appeared in most issues, and it is for these

s that ''Vanity Fair'' is best known then and today. Subjects included artists, athletes, royalty, statesmen, scientists, authors, actors, soldiers, religious personalities, business people and scholars. More than two thousand of these images appeared, and they are considered the chief cultural legacy of the magazine, forming a pictorial record of the period. They were produced by an international group of artists, including Sir

Max Beerbohm Sir Henry Maximilian Beerbohm (24 August 1872 – 20 May 1956) was an English essayist, Parody, parodist and Caricature, caricaturist under the signature Max. He first became known in the 1890s as a dandy and a humorist. He was the drama critic ...

, Sir Leslie Ward (who signed his work "Spy" and "Drawl"), the Italians Carlo Pellegrini ("Singe" and "Ape"), Melchiorre Delfico ("Delfico"), Liborio Prosperi ("Lib"), the Florentine artist and critic Adriano Cecioni, the French artists

James Tissot Jacques Joseph Tissot (; 15 October 1836 – 8 August 1902), anglicized as James Tissot (), was a French painter and illustrator. He was a successful painter of fashionable, modern scenes and society life in Paris before moving to London in 1871 ...

("Coïdé"), Prosper d'Épinay ("Nemo") and the American Thomas Nast.

Image gallery

File:James Hamilton, Vanity Fair, 1869-09-25.jpg, The Duke of Abercorn by Carlo Pellegrini in the 25 September 1869 issue File:Benjamin Disraeli, Vanity Fair, 1869-01-30.jpg,

by Carlo Pellegrini in the 30 January 1869 issue File:Nawab of Bengal.jpg,

Mansur Ali Khan of Bengal Nawab Sayyid Mansur Ali Khan (29 October 1830 – 4 November 1884) was the Nawab of Bengal from 1838 until his abdication in 1880, whereupon he renounced his titles and position as Nawab. During his reign, he instituted various policies in the ...

by "Atn" Alfred Thompson in the 16 April 1870 issue File:William Thomson, Vanity Fair, 1871-06-24.jpg,

William Thomson, Archbishop of York William Thomson, (11 February 1819 – 25 December 1890) was an English church leader, Archbishop of York from 1862 until his death. Biography Early life He was born the eldest son of John Thompson icof Kelswick House, near Whitehave ...

by Carlo Pellegrini in the 24 June 1871 issue File:VanityFair-Darwin2.jpg,

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...

in the 30 September 1871 issue File:MidhatPashaVanityFair.jpg, Caricature of Midhat Pasha by Leslie Ward in the 30 June 1877 issue File:Thomas Hardy Vanity Fair 1892-06-04.jpg,

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Wor ...

caricature by Leslie Ward in the 4 June 1892 issue File:Carlo Pelligrini-Richard Owen Old Bones.jpg, Captioned "Old Bones", caricature of an elderly

Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils. Ow ...

in 1873 File:Alexandre Dumas01.jpg, Alexandre Dumas, fils by Théobald Chartran in the 27 December 1879 issue File:Portrait of 'Steel' (4671260).jpg, Captioned "Steel", Sir

Henry Bessemer Sir Henry Bessemer (19 January 1813 – 15 March 1898) was an English inventor, whose steel-making process would become the most important technique for making steel in the nineteenth century for almost one hundred years from 1856 to 1950. He ...

by Leslie Ward in the 6 November 1880 issue File:Joseph Rudyard Kipling, Vanity Fair, 1894-06-07.jpg,

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)'' The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

by "Spy" on 7 June 1894 File:Paul kruger00a.jpg, President

Paul Kruger Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (; 10 October 1825 – 14 July 1904) was a South African politician. He was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and President of the South African Republic (or ...

of the

South African Republic The South African Republic ( nl, Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, abbreviated ZAR; af, Suid-Afrikaanse Republiek), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer Republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when i ...

by Leslie Ward in the 8 March 1900 issue File:Christabel Pankhurst Vanity Fair 15 June 1910.jpg, Suffragette

Christabel Pankhurst Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst, (; 22 September 1880 – 13 February 1958) was a British suffragette born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), she directed its militant actions from exil ...

in the 15 June 1910 issue File:Queen Alexandra, Vanity Fair, 1911-06-07.jpg,

Queen Alexandra Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 January 1901 to 6 May 1910 as the wife of ...

(unsigned) in the 7 June 1911 issue File:William-gillette-sherlock-holmes.jpg,

William Gillette William Hooker Gillette (July 24, 1853 – April 29, 1937) was an American actor-manager, playwright, and stage-manager in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He is best remembered for portraying Sherlock Holmes on stage and in a 1916 ...

playing

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

, drawn by Leslie Ward in the 27 February 1907 issue File:Henrik Ibsen Vanity Fair 1901-12-12.jpg,

Henrik Ibsen Henrik Johan Ibsen (; ; 20 March 1828 – 23 May 1906) was a Norwegian playwright and theatre director. As one of the founders of modernism in theatre, Ibsen is often referred to as "the father of realism" and one of the most influential pla ...

by "Snapp" in the 12 December 1901 issue File:Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) from Vanity Fair Issue 812, April 1884..jpg,

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

by Carlo Pellegrini in Issue 812, April 1884 File:Horace Gordon Hutchinson, Vanity Fair, 1890-07-19.jpg, Caricature of golfer

Horace Hutchinson Horatio Gordon "Horace" Hutchinson (16 May 1859 – 27 July 1932) was an English amateur golfer who played in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Hutchinson won the 1886 and 1887 Amateur Championships. He had three top-10 finishes in ...

by Spy on 19 July 1890 File:Henry Irving Vanity Fair.jpg, Caricature of

Henry Irving Sir Henry Irving (6 February 1838 – 13 October 1905), christened John Henry Brodribb, sometimes known as J. H. Irving, was an English stage actor in the Victorian era, known as an actor-manager because he took complete responsibility ...

in the melodrama '' The Bells'', in the 19 December 1874 issue File:Pierre and Marie Curie Vanity Fair 1904-12-22.jpg, Caricature of Pierre and

Marie Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the fir ...

in the 22 December 1904 issue File:WSGilbert by Spy.jpg, W. S. Gilbert by 'Spy', published on 21 May 1881 Winston Churchill Vanity Fair 1900-09-27.jpg,

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...

by "Spy", 27 September 1900 File:Mark Twain Vanity Fair 1908-05-13.jpeg,

Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has pr ...

by "Spy" on 13 May 1908 File:Robert Baden-Powell Vanity Fair 19 April 1911.jpg, Captioned "Boy Scouts", Robert Baden-Powell in the 19 April 1911 issue

References

External links

* . {{DEFAULTSORT:Vanity Fair (British Magazine) Weekly magazines published in the United Kingdom Defunct magazines published in the United Kingdom Magazines published in England Magazine publishing companies of England Magazines published in London Publishing companies based in London 1868 establishments in the United Kingdom 1914 disestablishments in the United Kingdom Magazines established in 1868 Magazines disestablished in 1914

History

Caricatures

Image gallery

See also

References

External links