Blue Devils

G. Cruickshank: The Blue Devils, 1835.

George Cruickshank was a humorist of the school of Hogarth and considered by some to be the best England has produced. He began as a painter of theatre backdrops, moved onto political caricatures and finally found his niche in the 1820s as a book illustrator. Perhaps his most famous work accompanied some editions of Charles Dickens novels.

This illustration appears as part of the small The Language of the Age : Depictions of Medicine in Graphic Satire exhibition at Countway/Harvard Medical School.

Update June 2008: The Countway exhibition site appears to be totally gone now and only the text survives at the Wayback Machine. That's a shame. I had stupidly hotlinked the image but managed to find an alternative copy which I've uploaded.

Update Two: Upon enquiry, I was advised that the library website has been updated and the exhibition site: 'The Language of the Age: Depictions of Medicine in Graphic Satire' is still available!